“I think that there’s an argument to be made that a smaller mid-market team may be more beneficial for him as a soft landing, coming from Japan, given what he’s been through,” Wolfe said. “Given what he’s been through and not having an enjoyable experience with the media, it might be… I’m not saying it will be, it might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market. But I really don’t know how he looks at it yet because I haven’t had a chance to really sit down and discuss it with him in great detail.”

Wolfe expanded on that, saying the Japanese media has been tough on him in recent years, but that will not stop him from fulfilling his Big League dreams — even if it’s not with the Dodgers or Yankees.

“Roki’s had a tough go of it the last couple of years,” he said. “The media in Japan has been very tough on him. He’s not had a great time with it. And I think it’s my personal opinion I think it’s been a bit unfair. And it’s affected him mentally a little bit. But he’s a great kid and he comes from a great family … his dream is to come here to the major leagues and I think that he hasn’t really wrapped his head around the individual teams and the individual cities and he just really doesn’t know much about them.”

Why Roki Sasaki is making his MLB move now

At 23, Sasaki is not eligible to sign a mega-deal like Yoshinobu Yamamoto did last winter with the Dodgers. Instead, he can only sign a minor league deal as an international amateur. Any major payday is going to have to wait.

So why now? Sasaki has dominated the Japan Pacific League, pitching to a 2.35 ERA in 2024 and a 1.78 ERA in 2023.