Agent - Roki Sasaki back in Japan, to mull next phase of process - ESPN

The initial list of major league teams that expressed interest in Roki Sasaki stretched to 20, his agent, Joel Wolfe of Wasserman Group, said Monday.

Sasaki, the uber-talented young starting pitcher, will join one of those teams at some point in the second half of January and is currently back home in Japan pondering the second phase of his highly scrutinized recruiting process.

Wolfe did not provide many specifics during a conference call with the media, only to state that Sasaki met with «a set few number of teams» over these past few weeks and will make his decision at some point between Jan. 15, when the new international signing period opens, and Jan. 23, when Sasaki's posting window closes.

Market size, living dynamics and even pedigree won't be the foremost priority.

«He doesn't seem to look at it in the typical way that other players do,» Wolfe said. «He has a more long-term, global view of things. I believe Roki is also very interested in the pitching development and how a team is going to help him get better, both in the near future and over the course of his career. He didn't seem overly concerned about whether a team had Japanese players on their team or not, which, in the past, when I represented Japanese players, that was sometimes an issue. That was never a topic of discussion.»

At 23, Sasaki is already one of the world's best pitchers, possessing a triple-digit fastball and a devastating splitter. With the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball over the past four seasons, Sasaki posted a 2.10 ERA with 505 strikeouts against just 88 walks in 394⅔ innings. Because he would be classified as an international amateur — meaning he would cost teams their international bonus pools and essentially