Dallas Keuchel, the 2015 American League Cy Younger winner, spent over two months with the Chiba Lotte Marines. Throughout Keuchel’s stint with the NPB staff, he found the greatness of Roki Sasaki.
Sasaki’s teammate all however confirmed the Los Angeles Dodgers are the favourite to signal the Japanese phenom in a dialog with the New York Publish.
“I heard some, some rumblings a couple of accomplished take care of the Dodgers — you recognize, having a plan for him,” Keuchel informed Joel Sherman of the New York Publish. “And if I used to be Vegas, I might undoubtedly put them as the favourite, however I don’t know. We by no means actually talked about that.”
Keuchel additionally addressed the chances of the New York Yankees and New York Mets signing Sasaki, however burdened the legacy with Japanese pitchers is deeper with the Dodgers.
“We talked about these two East Coast groups. I simply suppose the Dodgers have the higher hand simply due to Shohei (Ohtani), (Yoshinobu) Yamamoto, and even (Yu) Darvish pitching there for that playoff run in ’17. Anyplace you went [in Japan], the Dodgers had been on TV within the morning, simply due to these guys. So we briefly spoke in regards to the pinstripes and in regards to the Mets, however actually, there was no central staff that we talked about.”
It’s evident the Dodgers are the most well-liked MLB staff in Japan. From Hideo Nomo to Yu Darvish, the Dodgers have had a number of the greatest Japanese pitchers take the mound in Los Angeles.
Nevertheless, Keuchel believes Sasaki has the potential to surpass all of them. After spending two-plus months with the 23-year-old pitcher, he’s completely satisfied that Sasaki will do nice issues within the majors.
And after what Keuchel noticed in Japan, it’s all however confirmed Sasaki will find yourself in a Dodgers uniform.
“I noticed some Yankees hats, however in all places it was the ‘D’ for Dodgers on shirts and hats,” Keuchel mentioned of his stint in Japan.
Whether or not Sasaki chooses to signal with Los Angeles, it’s clear that Dodger blue is a well-liked shade abroad.
Picture Credit score: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports activities
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