The Roki Sasaki sweepstakes have officially begun with the Japanese phenom officially being posted during the MLB Winter Meetings.

The Rangers find themselves squarely in the max as they have a history with Sasaki and will be aggressive in the pursuit of signing him.

On Tuesday morning at the Winter Meetings, Sasaki’s agent Joel Wolfe met with the media and delivered some good news for Rangers fans.

Since he is under 25 years old, Sasaki will come over as an international free agent rather than a regular free agent meaning the playing field is more level.

The Rangers front office has been scouting Sasaki since he was fifteen years old, and as recently as last season, Chris Young and staff traveled to Japan to scout him.

So what did we learn today? Did Wolfe provide any new information and does it favor the Rangers? Let’s break it all down.

Somewhat of an already known but Wolfe reiterated that Sasaki won’t necessarily be signing with a big market team.

Wolfe said, “There is an argument that a smaller market team would be more beneficial”. It’s important to note that he said it “might” be and not that he’s not saying that it “will be”.

We learned today that Sasaki has been watching a lot of MLB games this year and has been paying attention to how teams did not only this year but in past years.

That works well for the Rangers who won the World Series title in 2023 and still has that same core intact.

Perhaps most importantly we learn what Sasaki is valuing here in this almost college recruitment-like process.

Wolfe said that Sasaki often asks about weather. We know the Rangers playing in Globe Life Field will do nothing but help the pursuit of him. Not to mention the outdoor weather isn’t too bad in DFW either if you don’t mind the heat.

Sasaki also values pitching development and with Mike Maddux, the Rangers have one of the best pitching coaches in MLB.

Obviously, the Rangers haven’t been the most successful team in terms of developing pitchers but one very important hit was Japanese sensation Yu Darvish.

Texas signed Darvish out of Japan in 2012 and formed him into the multi-time All-Star pitcher that we know him as today.

Joining the Rangers would allow Sasaki to create his own path while still being with a team that has developed Japanese pitching in the past.