Marlins Reports Triggered a Firestorm Around Rintaro Sasaki—What His Management Team Had to Say

“There is no fact that I have decided on my path.”

Stanford University infielder Rintaro Sasaki (21) held a press conference in Hanamaki, Iwate Prefecture, on July 19 and announced that he would join the Miami Marlins, who selected him in the eighth round of the MLB Draft (235th overall).

“I want to live my life choosing not whether I succeeded or failed based on myself, but whether I took on the challenge. Ultimately, that is what led me to make this decision.”

At the beginning of the press conference, which started at 2 p.m., Sasaki spoke with deep emotion about joining the Marlins and staking his baseball career on the move. During his time at Hanamaki Higashi High School, he hit a total of 140 home runs and had always strongly aspired to play in the majors, which led him to enroll at Stanford. He hit seven home runs as a freshman and has already launched 16 this year. In June, he also showed off his tremendous power at the “Draft Combine,” an event attended by MLB draft prospects.

“Sasaki was selected first overall by the SoftBank Hawks in last fall’s NPB Draft, but he put that decision on hold. He had three options: the Hawks, the Marlins, or remaining at university. In June, Sasaki toured the Hawks’ facilities, including Mizuho PayPay Dome Fukuoka and the club’s training complex in Chikushino, and met over meals and in meetings with CBO Kenji Johjima (50) and others.

The Hawks even went so far as to send video messages from team chairman Sadaharu Oh (86), manager Hirokazu Kogure (54), and owner Masayoshi Son (68). The club valued Sasaki as a first-round pick and was reportedly willing to allow him to eventually move to MLB through the posting system.” (Team source)

Meanwhile, on July 15, some media outlets reported “Sasaki to join the Marlins” before any official announcement. The report ultimately proved correct, but Sasaki’s management representative was reportedly furious about the premature report.

“After meeting CBO Johjima, Sasaki repeatedly hinted that he was basically headed over there (the Marlins), and he was selected higher in the MLB Draft than he had expected. That is why the reports said the deal was essentially a done deal. But at the time of the report, Sasaki’s management team had not yet entered into substantive negotiations with the Marlins, nor had they formally informed the Hawks of his decision.

Unlike the NPB, it is not unusual in MLB for a drafted player to negotiate and secure an increase of tens of millions of yen in signing money. Sasaki’s side presumably wanted to use his NPB evaluation as leverage and negotiate over the signing bonus right up until the deadline.

But the report revealed that the Marlins were Sasaki’s preferred destination. ‘Now we can’t negotiate with the Marlins. We wanted to apologize to the Hawks in advance,’ they were reportedly furious. That is precisely why they hastily issued a statement denying the report, saying, ‘There is no fact that a decision has been made regarding his future.’” (NPB source)

According to the official MLB website, the going rate for a signing bonus for the 235th overall pick is $239,200 (approximately ¥38.75 million). By comparison, the typical signing bonus for an NPB first-round pick is ¥100 million.

With the deadline for negotiations with the Marlins approaching at 5 p.m. local time on the 27th (6 a.m. Japan time on the 28th), Sasaki is taking another step toward his goal of becoming a player who can compete on the world stage, even as he finds himself caught up in the behind-the-scenes circumstances of professional baseball.