Roki Sasaki is reportedly MLB-bound.
There are countless reasons the Rangers likely covet him. But most of those reasons are shared by every team in the league.
When I went through the exercise in May of plotting out what the next three-and-a-half years of Rangers trades and free-agent signings could look like, Part 2 focused on the 2024-25 winter — and here we are.
In that installment, I predicted:
A trade with the Cardinals that can no longer happen: Leody Taveras, Ezequiel Duran, Jonathan Hernandez (now a free agent, after the Mariners dropped him from their roster), and Braylin Morel to St. Louis for closer Ryan Helsley, IF-OF Tommy Edman (now a Dodger [and the reigning NLCS MVP]), LHP JoJo Romero, Class A OF Won-Bin Cho, Double-A C Jimmy Crooks, and $250,000 in international bonus pool money
A two-year extension for Kirby Yates, and one-year deals for Jose Urena and Travis Jankowski
One-year contracts with RHP Ryan Pressly (whose Astros option for 2025 since vested), DH-3B-1B Justin Turner, and C Jacob Stallings
A three-year deal with Japanese RHP Kona Takahashi
And the signing of Chiba Lotte Marine RHP Roki Sasaki
Takahashi apparently won’t be posted this winter after all.
But at midnight our time, the Marines announced their intentions to post the 23-year-old Sasaki this offseason.
Frenzy: commenced.