Japanese teenage slugger Rintaro Sasaki will forgo entering the Nippon Professional Baseball league's draft and will instead pursue playing at an American college, according to Baseball America's Peter Flaherty. Sasaki has not yet announced what school he'll attend.
Sasaki, who attended the same high school as two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani, is considered to have near-elite raw power. He reportedly homered 140 times throughout his prep career, setting a new Japanese high school record. He was considered to be a candidate to go No. 1 overall in the next NPB draft.
Here's a mini-scouting report on the 6-foot-5 Sasaki courtesy of Flaherty:
The younger Sasaki's calling card is his thunderous raw power which comfortably grades out as a 70 on the 20-80 scouting scale. While his power is his premier tool, Sasaki also has a knack for consistently finding the barrel and has a great feel to hit. He has plenty of bat speed as well as big time "buggy whip" in his hands. Sasaki has also shown an advanced approach and has walked twice as many times as he has struck out. Defensively, Sasaki is limited to first base and he fields the position well.
Sasaki's move to America does not appear to be financially motivated, at least not in the short term. The NCAA's rules prohibit international athletes from receiving NIL money. Rather than being treated as a free agent, he'll instead be regarded as the typical amateur collegiate. That means he will be eligible for Major League Baseball's draft after his junior season.
Flaherty notes that Sasaki is not the first player to head to America to play college ball. Rikuu Nishida, the 11th-round pick of the Chicago White Sox this summer, graduated from high school in Japan before coming stateside. He played two seasons at a junior college before transferring to Oregon ahead of his draft season.
On the flip side, right-hander Carter Stewart did not sign after being drafted eighth in 2018. He later elected to sign with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks as a means of making more money upfront. CBS Sports delved into greater detail about his trailblazing efforts here.
