Top Japanese prospect Rintaro Sasaki foregoes NPB draft

\n”,”providerName”:”Twitter”,”providerUrl”:”https://twitter.com”,”type”:”oembed”,”width”:550,”contentType”:”rich”},{“__typename”:”Markdown”,”content”:”The decision will have a big impact on Sasaki’s future MLB prospects. Now, he’ll not only attend a U.S. university — there are rumors that Vanderbilt is interested — but will also be eligible for the MLB Draft in three seasons. Were he to enter the NPB draft, he would need to wait for his Nippon Professional Baseball team to either post him, as Ohtani’s Nippon Ham Fighters did in 2017, or wait until he became a free agent after nine years of service time.”,”type”:”text”},{“__typename”:”OEmbed”,”html”:”

Huge late night news as 17-year-old Japanese sensation Rintaro Sasaki will forgo the NBP Draft and attend college in the United States. Walloped a Japanese HS record 140 HRs and hit over .400. 6-foot, 250-pound behemoth with top of the scale raw power. pic.twitter.com/48mQrscX3l

— Peter Flaherty III (@PeterGFlaherty) October 10, 2023

\n\n”,”providerName”:”Twitter”,”providerUrl”:”https://twitter.com”,”type”:”oembed”,”width”:550,”contentType”:”rich”},{“__typename”:”Markdown”,”content”:”Sasaki isn’t the only player to make such a decision. Most recently, Rikuu Nishida did the same, spending two years at a junior college before transferring to Oregon. He was selected by the White Sox in the 11th round earlier this year.\n\nOne potential wrinkle: Because he’s an international player, Sasaki will most likely not be eligible for an NIL deal.”,”type”:”text”}],”contentType”:”news”,”subHeadline”:null,”summary”:”Don’t look now, but Hanamaki Higashi High School may just be the best high school for developing future Major League stars on the planet. The school, which counts Shohei Ohtani and Yusei Kikuchi among its graduates, may soon add Rintaro Sasaki to the list, as the Japanese power-hitting phenom has”,”tagline({\”formatString\”:\”none\”})”:null,”tags”:[{“__typename”:”InternalTag”,”slug”:”storytype-article”,”title”:”Article”,”type”:”article”},{“__typename”:”ContributorTag”,”slug”:”michael-clair”,”title”:”Michael Clair”,”type”:”contributor”},{“__typename”:”TaxonomyTag”,”slug”:”mlb-top-prospects”,”title”:”MLB Top Prospects”,”type”:”taxonomy”},{“__typename”:”TaxonomyTag”,”slug”:”japan”,”title”:”Japan”,”type”:”taxonomy”},{“__typename”:”TaxonomyTag”,”slug”:”mlb-international”,”title”:”MLB International”,”type”:”taxonomy”}],”type”:”story”,”thumbnail”:”https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/upload/{formatInstructions}/mlb/vgp3ndf3w0w2uaminyrw”,”title”:”Top Japanese prospect Rintaro Sasaki foregoes NPB draft”}}}}
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