Roki Sasaki's perfect game: Five things to know about Japanese pitcher, including 20-year-old could move to MLB

There have been plenty of perfect games in professional baseball. But there has likely never been a more perfect, perfect game than what Roki Sasaki pitched on Sunday.

Facing the Orix Buffaloes in the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan, the 20-year-old hurler for the Chiba Lotte Marines retired all 27 batters he faced, including a record-tying 19 via strikeout.

Sasaki has been on the radar of American baseball for a while as one of the top international pitchers in the world for some time, but his perfect game made headlines in a way few since Shohei Ohtani have been able to do.

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Sasaki continued his dominance Sunday with eight perfect innings and 14 strikeouts against the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. He was pulled for the final innings in a 0-0 game to protect his arm after 102 pitches, with the Marines ultimately winning 1-0 in 10 innings. He has retired 51 batters straight in his last two starts and 52 batters overall, a NPB record.

Sasaki is quickly becoming one of the most important names in the sport. The Sporting News has you covered with five things to know about the Japanese star.

Roki Sasaki’s perfect game

Was it the greatest game ever pitched? It certainly has a case for that title.

Sasaki’s perfect game was the 16th in NPB history and the first in the league since Hiromi Makihara’s perfecto back in 1994. Between the NPB and MLB, it was the most strikeouts in a perfect game thrown. In MLB, Matt Cain (2012) and Sandy Koufax (1965) hold the record for strikeouts in a perfect game at 14. The previous Japanese record was 16 set by Yoshiro Sotokoba of Hiroshima back in 1968.

Those 19 strikeouts set the record for the most in any game in NPB history, and would have been just shy of the MLB record of 21 set by Tom Cheney in 1962. During the game, Sasaki struck out 13 batters in a row, also an NPB record and would-be MLB record.

Impressively, Sasaki needed only 105 pitches to retire all 27 batters, even with the 19 strikeouts. He averaged 3.9 pitches per batter.

Based on game score, a stat developed by Bill James to analyze a pitcher’s performance, Sasaki’s perfect game earned a 106 score, one point higher than the 105 score earned by Kerry Wood, when he struck out 20 batters against the Astros and allowed one hit and no walks over nine innings.

Roki Sasaki pitch repertoire

Sasaki has a nearly unhittable pair of pitches in his fastball and splitter.

Coming out of high school, Sasaki became famous for already being able to throw a fastball more than 100 miles per hour. According to CBS Sports, he averaged 99.5 mph on his fastball in his start against the Buffaloes. The fastball also had 19.8 inches of vertical and 15.4 inches of horizontal break.

For comparison, Baseball Savant listed only one pitcher (among qualifiers) as throwing more than 95 mph with at least 19 inches of vertical break in 2021, which was Dillon Maples (95.1 mph and 20.1 vertical break). Jarlin Garcia and Andrew Heaney were the only pitchers who had more than 15 inches of break in both horizontal and vertical with a fastball of at least 90 mph.

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Just when hitters think they have that fastball in their sites, Sasaki can drop a filthy splitter to keep them completely off balance. CBS Sports reported that his splitter averages 91.2 mph with 2.3 inches of vertical and 7.8 inches of horizontal break. That would be the second-fastest splitter in MLB.

Roki Sasaki’s high school nickname

Does that pitch arsenal sound completely unfair to hit? Imagine facing that in high school.

Sasaki was already reaching triple-digits in high school and was one of the most talked about pitchers in the state. According to The Asahi Shimbun, Sasaki threw a pitch clocked at 163 kilometers per hour (101 mph) during his senior year at Ofunato High School in 2019.

That intimidating velocity helped earn him the nickname, “The Monster of the Reiwa.”

As a result of his high school success, Sasaki was drafted to the NPB by the Marines with their first pick.

Roki Sasaki stats

Once he was in the Nippon Professional Baseball League, Sasaki began to dominate the competition right away. In his first season, 2021, he posted a 1.84 ERA across 83.1 innings of work. He fanned 87 batters, walked only 19 and gave up just 61 hits (six home runs).

He is already looking to improve those numbers in 2022. Through his first three starts, including his perfect game, Sasaki has a 1.57 ERA in 23 innings with 42 strikeouts, two walks and only seven hits allowed.

By comparison, in his last full year of pitching in the NPB, Shohei Ohtani posted an ERA of 1.86 across 140 innings with 174 strikeouts, 45 walks and 89 hits (four walks). Ohtani made only five starts in 2017, and had a 3.42 ERA in 26.1 innings.

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When can Roki Sasaki come to MLB?

MLB fans are likely waiting for the chance to see Sasaki pitch for one of their teams. That will likely not be coming anytime soon.

Sasaki would have to play for the Marines for at least nine years before they can become international free agents. There is a process by which Sasaki could come over early, but it is complicated.

Sasaki could ask the Marines to post him before he turns 25. If they did so, there would be a cap between $4.75 and $5.75 million to spend to try and sign international players in their pool, according to MLB. Should the Marines post him, they would receive 20 percent of the guaranteed value of his contract.

If Sasaki waits until he is 25 or has six years of professional experience, he can request to be posted by the Marines. But this time, would be able to sign a larger deal. According to MLB, if he signs a deal less than or equal to $25 million, Chiba Lotte would receive 20 percent of his deal. If the deal is between $25,000,001 and $50,000,000, the fee would be 20 percent of the first $25 million and 17.5 percent of the rest of the deal that exceeds $25 million. Any more than $50 million, and it would be 20 percent of the $25 million, 17.5 percent of the next $25 million and 15 percent of the remaining deal that is more than $50 million.

The posting system is complicated, but unless Sasaki decides to leave early, it likely won’t be an issue until at least 2027.

Sorry, MLB fans. You all are going to have to wait for Sasaki to reach the states.

Source: https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/roki-sasaki-perfect-game-japanese-pitcher-mlb/bqf4jqhsjro19lywp76rlsbg