The Mets were early adopters of NPB starting pitchers. Masato Yoshii was a rotation regular for the 1998 and 1999 Mets. At that point, only Hideo Nomo, Hideki Irabu and (briefly) Shigetoshi Hasegawa had started an MLB game in 35 years.

The Los Angeles Dodgers may not actually be the favorites to sign 23-year-old Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki in free agency.

After initial reports connected highly anticipated rookie ace Roki Sasaki to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the latest buzz suggests that LA isn't even a frontrunner.

Once news emerged that top Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki is set to be posted for MLB teams, the consensus that emerged suggested that the Dodgers were his most likely landing spot. A new report suggests,

For years, Seattle was regarded as a premier destination for Japanese players making the jump to Major League Baseball. The Mariners had strong ties across the Pacific: They had a longtime owner, Hiroshi Yamauchi,

The Dodgers have sought to, in the words of manager Dave Roberts, “paint the country of Japan blue” through their leveraging of last winter’s Japanese signings, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. They’ve fostered a strong relationship with Sasaki’s agent,

The Los Angeles Dodgers are pushing forward with an ambitious free-agency plan to strengthen their pitching rotation, setting their sights on more than one star addition. Roki Sasaki, the Japanese phenom with a blazing triple-digit fastball,