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By the time you read tomorrow’s Windup, the 2025 regular season will be underway!
Plus: Our AL West preview, a surprise announcement from Joey Gallo and Ken telling us about the company involved in Roki Sasaki’s free agency. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!
It’s (Almost) Here: Ready for Opening Day?
At 6:10 a.m. ET tomorrow on Fox (3:10 a.m. for you West Coast night owls), Yoshinobu Yamamoto will toe the rubber in Tokyo, and we’ll be off. Let’s get you up to speed:
Wondering why the Dodgers and Cubs are opening the season in Japan in mid-March? Here’s an explainer for you. The short version: Baseball is huge in Japan. Shohei Ohtani is the best player in the sport! Japan won the 2023 World Baseball Classic!
But Ohtani isn’t the lone hometown hero playing in this series. Both Opening Day starters — Yamamoto and Shota Imanaga — plus Dodgers rookie pitcher Roki Sasaki and Chicago outfielder Seiya Suzuki are Japanese.
It is truly a golden age of baseball in the country. (I highly recommend that link, by the way.)
It’s also not the first time this has happened — Ichiro’s final games with the Mariners were part of the five previous MLB series played in Japan.
Over the weekend, both MLB teams played exhibition games against Japanese teams. In the stadium where Ohtani once sent a ball through the roof, he (obviously) homered again. The packed stadium coming to a reverent hush before every pitch to him was truly something to behold.
One bit of bad news for the Dodgers: Mookie Betts won’t be playing due to a lingering illness.
More Tokyo Series:
Ken’s Notebook: Japanese company irked MLB execs during Sasaki sweepstakes
From my latest story:
The seating arrangement revealed the true power dynamic behind the pursuit of Roki Sasaki. The coveted pitcher’s American agent, Joel Wolfe, occupied the end of a long table. He was separated from the player, who sat at the middle, within easy whispering range of his Japanese representative, who would increasingly be perceived as the person in charge: Tomoki Sakai.
Only a corporate logo was missing from this show of influence: that of Sakai’s employer, Dentsu.
The meeting was one of many conducted last offseason between Sasaki, 23, and major-league clubs pursuing him as a free agent. When Sasaki wanted to share a private thought, he turned to Sakai, and not simply because they spoke the same language. Wolfe later told one of the team executives present that, aside from making opening and closing remarks, Sasaki instructed him not to ask questions during the meeting, not to speak.
One of the largest advertising agencies in the world, reaching into many elements of everyday Japanese life, Dentsu is one of the most powerful companies in the country. In the Sasaki negotiations, its influence seemingly extended into the boardrooms where the right-hander weighed a decision that would be scrutinized on both sides of the Pacific.
Sasaki ultimately agreed to join the Los Angeles Dodgers, who begin their defense of the World Series championship on Tuesday against the Cubs in Tokyo. But nearly two months later, rival executives continue to simmer over how his recruiting process unfolded.
For many, the target of frustration is not Wolfe, who as executive vice president of the Wasserman agency also represents two other Japanese pitchers, the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto and San Diego Padres’ Yu Darvish, as well as several other major-league stars. Several of the teams point the finger at Sakai and, by extension, Dentsu.
“Dentsu had an agenda and it just never felt like we truly fit with whatever that agenda was,” said one head of baseball operations who pursued Sasaki and, like others quoted in this story, was granted anonymity for his candor. “We’re skeptical moving forward when they represent a player.”
Dentsu, which employs more than 71,000 people worldwide, does not negotiate player contracts. Providing marketing opportunities and other services, though, seems a natural outgrowth for the company, which already counts Yamamoto as its other prominent major-league client. The company also does business with other sports leagues along with marquee global events such as the World Cup and the Olympics.
Dentsu has been described as “hard-wired into nearly every major institution in Japan,” as The New York Times wrote in a 2021 article headlined “The Invisible Hand Behind the Tokyo Olympics.” In baseball terms, it would be the rough equivalent of Scott Boras Corporation also being an advertising agency and owning the television rights to Major League Baseball in the United States. Such a description still might not do justice to Dentsu’s influence in Japan.
More here.
Division Preview: Wading through a muddy AL West
Every one of these teams has flaws, and they all have arguments — some more convincing than others — that they can ascend from the mire and into the postseason.
- Let’s start with the Astros (88-73 last season). They’ve been the division favorites for a decade now, but have continued to hemorrhage talent, including Kyle Tucker, Alex Bregman and Ryan Pressly this offseason. They brought in Christian Walker and Isaac Paredes, but they’re no longer the prohibitive favorites.
- The Mariners (85-77) still have one of the best rotations in baseball. Surely Julio Rodríguez, Cal Raleigh, Randy Arozarena and Mitch Garver aren’t going to completely disappear for a second year in a row … right? Seems like it would have been a good time to sign a free agent or two.
- Then there are the Rangers (78-84). Are you counting on a healthy Jacob deGrom, a healthy Corey Seager, a bounce-back Adolis García and a continuation of Marcus Semien’s every-other-year greatness? Jake Burger and Joc Pederson should help the struggles against velocity, though. And after a unit rebuild, it appears a mystery door has been installed on the bullpen. If it’s a good surprise, the return of some injured players could make them dangerous.
- For all the chaos off the field, the A’s (69-93), locked down their two best players (Lawrence Butler and Brent Rooker) to extensions, signed Luis Severino and traded for Jeffrey Springs. Mason Miller remains a monster. They won’t win the division, but they might threaten for third place if one of the top three teams falters?
- The Angels (63-99), on the other hand, did a lot. Look at this transactions page and click through to February! But every year, my running joke goes like this: “Maybe ______ will be the key to get the Angels back in the playoffs!” Every year, the joke gets a little more depressing. (This year, I’m torn between Kenley Jansen and Jorge Soler. Dealer’s choice.)
Our team of analysts picks the Rangers to win the division. I don’t disagree, but I don’t feel overly confident, either.
Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images
Wait, What?: Joey Gallo, pitcher?
Before yesterday, the last time Joey Gallo tweeted was in March 2022, when he was in spring training with the Yankees. He has since played for the Twins and Nationals, and last year, the former All-Star and Gold Glove winner hit just .161/.277/.366 (.613 OPS) with 10 home runs in 76 games. This winter, he signed a minor-league deal with the White Sox.
One comeback (to social media) implied another (baseball), but not quite in the way anyone would have expected: The king of three true outcomes is going to attempt a surprise fourth outcome: converting to pitching.
There is some precedent. When Gallo was in high school, some scouts thought he was better as a pitching prospect. He even pitched a no-hitter on the same day he took Greg Maddux’s daughter to prom.
Gallo, now 31, isn’t the first position player this offseason to attempt the switch. Eight-year veteran Tyler Naquin is also attempting to make the switch with the Guardians.
Handshakes and High Fives
(Top photo: Darren Yamashita / Imagn Images)
