theathleticuk
PHOENIX The calm of a summer day in the sleepy Cape Cod town of Hyannis, Mass., was disrupted last July by the loud crack of slugger Rintaro Sasakis wood bat.
Loren Hibbs, the head coach of the visiting Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod League, swears with a laugh that the baseball mustve hit an apex of 900 feet.
Im exaggerating a little bit, he said.
Advertisement Whether the ball would travel the necessary home-run distance to right at McKeon Field was never in question.
That part, the power, comes easily for Sasaki, who is the high school home run record holder in Japan and was once one of the countrys most famous amateur baseball players.
What comes next for Sasaki is the hard part: a life-altering decision that will have to be made before the end of July.
In front of Sasaki are three choices: Return to Japan and join Nippon Professional Baseball, Japans equivalent to Major League Baseball.
Sign with the MLB club that drafts him and turn pro in the United States.
Return to Stanford for his junior season and try to improve on the .262/.403/.549 line he posted for the Cardinal this season.
I would say Im proud of myself, Sasaki said of his first two seasons playing in Division I college baseball.
What do I do right now? Im not sure this way is going to be the (successful) way or maybe the wrong way.
I dont know.
Its totally up to (critics).
Attention and scrutiny have followed Sasaki wherever hes gone.
His father, Hiroshi, coached Shohei Ohtani and Yusei Kikuchi when they were budding stars for Hanamaki-Higashi High School in Iwate Prefecture.
The younger Sasaki can recall spending time with Ohtani and Kikuchi when they were relatively unknown to the larger baseball world.
Over time, hes leaned on them for advice as he charts his own path to the big leagues.
Its so impressive what theyre doing, Sasaki said.
My future goal (as a player) is playing those two guys.
His future, though, is uncertain.
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 wouldnt have been eligible to come to the U.S.
for nine years unless his Japanese club made him available in the posting system earlier.
Advertisement I didnt speak English two years ago.
Nothing, Sasaki said of his decision to head stateside shortly after graduating high school.
I spoke only Japanese.
(In) 18 years, Ive never (gone) to another country ever before.
For me, this is the best way.
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 No.
20-ranked prospect, who signed directly with the club, bypassing the NPB Draft a year after Sasaki went to Stanford.
Its a very, very proud thing to see right from my eyes, Murakami, who is a subject in the documentary Diamond Diplomacy, told The Athletic through interpreter Yuriko Miyake.
I think now it is very accessible and easier to go to America compared to when I went there.
The attention on players like Sasaki, however, is different.
Before he even took an at-bat for the Cardinal, Sasaki was named preseason Freshman of the Year by Baseball America.
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.
I dont know if many people could handle all the different attention hes gotten and expectations and still stay grounded and become a good teammate and better himself as a player, Stanford head coach Dave Esquer said.
At the onset of his collegiate career, Sasakis on-field production didnt 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, Sasakis freshman season was uneven.
He posted a .790 OPS with just seven homers.
Advertisement That summer, he played in the Cape Code League to continue working on his hitting and defense ahead of a platform sophomore season.
He was very comfortable with what he was trying to get accomplished offensively, in terms of his swing, drill works, those things, said Hibbs, who coached Sasaki on Cotuit.
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.
This season, he bumped up his OPS by more than 150 points and bashed 16 home runs 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.
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.
Sasaki isnt one of Keith Laws top 100 prospects going into Saturdays draft, though.
Hes also not included in MLB Pipelines list of the top 250 prospects.
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.
If Sasaki were to hear his name this weekend and sign with an MLB club, its a route hes 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.
Im not sure where Im going right now, but I would say I think (Im) more comfortable at a starting line (compared to) other people coming from Japan, he said.
Advertisement 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.
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.
We want to become a team that all baseball players want to play for, Son told Japanese reporters.
And one day, we will have a true World Series between the MLB champion and the NPB champion.
The Hawks have not posted any of their players, even when theyve asked to be, a situation that most recently played out with New York Mets pitcher Kodai Senga, who had his requests denied on multiple occasions.
If he were to choose to go to NPB, Sasaki could go through the same process Senga did unless he and the Hawks negotiate an opt-out, a process that still hadnt yet occurred when The Athletic spoke to Sasaki in late June.
Should the Hawks maintain their status quo, Sasaki would be eligible to return to the U.S.
as a 30-year-old, his prime years behind him.
Returning to MLB as an older player would not be unprecedented; Nori Aoki debuted at 30, while Hideki Matsui did so at 29 before playing a decade in the bigs, winning the World Series MVP in 2009 for the Yankees.
If neither option is appealing, Sasaki is still eligible to return to Stanford and re-enter the MLB Draft again in 2027, albeit as a 22-year-old.
Were here for him, Esquer said.
If that were to come to pass, where coming back to Stanford was his best option absolutely, with open arms we would do that.
..
If hes a junior with 20-plus home runs, thats gonna be pretty exciting for somebody to feel like hes closer to being a big leaguer.
Whichever decision Sasaki makes, his coaches are confident he can succeed.
He just wants to be great, Esquer said.