The titular topics may not be directly related, but they’re not totally unrelated either. Due to the nature of Roki Sasaki‘s transition to MLB, there are a great number of factors that will all weigh more heavily than money. I’d even go so far as to say every factor will carry a higher priority than money, as the 23-year-old is already choosing to forego a deal that could have at least rivaled the record-setting $325 million contract Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed last offseason.
Because Sasaki is a couple years short of being considered a “professional” international free agent, he’s limited to compensation via teams’ bonus pools.