What comes next for Sasaki is the hard part: a life-altering decision that will have to be made before the end of July.<\/p>\n
In front of Sasaki are three choices:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Return to Japan and join Nippon Professional Baseball, Japan\u2019s equivalent to Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Sign with the MLB club that drafts him and turn pro in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Return to Stanford for his junior season and try to improve on the .262\/.403\/.549 line he posted for the Cardinal this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say I\u2019m proud of myself,\u201d Sasaki said of his first two seasons playing in Division I college baseball. \u201cWhat do I do right now? I\u2019m not sure this way is going to be the (successful) way or maybe the wrong way. I don\u2019t know. It\u2019s totally up to (critics).\u201d<\/p>\n
Attention and scrutiny have followed Sasaki wherever he\u2019s gone. His father, Hiroshi, coached Shohei Ohtani and Yusei Kikuchi when they were budding stars for Hanamaki-Higashi High School in Iwate Prefecture.<\/p>\n
The younger Sasaki can recall spending time with Ohtani and Kikuchi when they were relatively unknown to the larger baseball world. Over time, he\u2019s leaned on them for advice as he charts his own path to the big leagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so impressive what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Sasaki said. \u201cMy future goal (as a player) is playing those two guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
His future, though, is uncertain.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Sasaki announced that he would forgo the NPB Draft to move to the United States, where he enrolled at Stanford as a student-athlete. At the California university, not only could he receive a college education, but he could accelerate his dreams via the MLB Draft, which the 21-year-old is eligible for this year after his sophomore season because of his age. Had he started his pro career in NPB, he wouldn\u2019t have been eligible to come to the U.S. for nine years unless his Japanese club made him available in the posting system earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t speak English two years ago. Nothing,\u201d Sasaki said of his decision to head stateside shortly after graduating high school. \u201cI spoke only Japanese. (In) 18 years, I\u2019ve never (gone) to another country ever before. For me, this is the best way.\u201d<\/p>\n
His unusual baseball path is similar to that of Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese player to ever appear in MLB, having gone straight from Japan to the San Francisco Giants, debuting in 1964. It also inspired Shotaro Morii, the Athletics\u2019 No. 20-ranked prospect<\/a>, who signed directly with the club<\/a>, bypassing the NPB Draft a year after Sasaki went to Stanford.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very, very proud thing to see right from my eyes,\u201d Murakami,\u00a0who is a subject in the documentary \u201cDiamond Diplomacy,<\/a>\u201d told The Athletic through interpreter Yuriko Miyake. \u201cI think now it is very accessible and easier to go to America compared to when I went there.\u201d<\/p>\n \n When Sasaki first came to Stanford, he didn\u2019t speak English. That didn\u2019t stop him from taking on challenging baseball assignments, like participating in the MLB Draft League before even taking an official at-bat for the Cardinal.<\/p>\n The attention on players like Sasaki, however, is different.<\/p>\n Before he even took an at-bat for the Cardinal, Sasaki was named preseason Freshman of the Year by Baseball America<\/a>. He was invited to the MLB Draft League, an MLB-sanctioned league for amateur and draft-eligible players, also before appearing in a college game.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if many people could handle all the different attention he\u2019s gotten and expectations and still stay grounded and become a good teammate and better himself as a player,\u201d Stanford head coach Dave Esquer said.<\/p>\n At the onset of his collegiate career, Sasaki\u2019s on-field production didn\u2019t match the hype that surrounded him. Between the transition to a new country and the language barrier, plus the challenge of facing higher-end ACC pitching and growing defensive responsibilities at first base, Sasaki\u2019s freshman season was uneven. He posted a .790 OPS with just seven homers.<\/p>\n That summer, he played in the Cape Code League to continue working on his hitting and defense ahead of a platform sophomore season.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was very comfortable with what he was trying to get accomplished offensively, in terms of his swing, drill works, those things,\u201d said Hibbs, who coached Sasaki on Cotuit.<\/p>\n Though he hit just .107\/.265\/.357 with two homers, including that long ball in Hyannis, in 10 games on the Cape, Sasaki returned to Stanford in the fall and made notable improvements with his play.<\/p>\n This season, he bumped up his OPS by more than 150 points and bashed 16 home runs \u2014 a total that matched the number he hit between his time in the Draft League, the Appalachian League, his freshman year at Stanford and the summer in Cape Cod.<\/p>\n Last month at the MLB Draft Combine, Sasaki took on-field batting practice, hoping to further separate himself from the pack. He generated exit velocities of 115.4, 110.6 and 107.3 mph, and distances as far as 458 and 434 feet, per MLB.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sasaki isn\u2019t one of Keith Law\u2019s top 100 prospects<\/a> going into Saturday\u2019s draft, though. He\u2019s also not included in MLB Pipeline\u2019s list of the top 250 prospects<\/a>.<\/p>\n Limited to first base defensively (although he did take grounders at third at the combine) and already 21 years old, Sasaki projects to be a Day 2 pick (after the fourth round), which would set him up for a bonus anywhere from the low six figures to the low five figures.<\/p>\n If Sasaki were to hear his name this weekend and sign with an MLB club, it\u2019s a route he\u2019s fully prepared to take. His time in the States has set him up for a smoother transition to affiliated baseball than he had when he first arrived and was trying to learn the language and culture at the same time he was adjusting to a higher level of baseball competition.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure where I\u2019m going right now, but I would say I think (I\u2019m) more comfortable at a starting line (compared to) other people coming from Japan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Sasaki has already had his name called in a different draft, which could further complicate his MLB decision. The Fukuoka Softbank Hawks won his rights in the last NPB Draft. If Sasaki were to join the Hawks, he would possibly do so without a promise from the team that they would post him before the nine-year window when he would become a free agent.<\/p>\n Masayoshi Son, the owner of the Hawks, has argued in the past that in order for NPB to become on par with MLB, Japanese talent must remain in Japan.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to become a team that all baseball players want to play for,\u201d Son told Japanese reporters<\/a>. \u201cAnd one day, we will have a true World Series between the MLB champion and the NPB champion.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Rintaro](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-2263277349-scaled.jpg\")
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