Let the waiting game commence.
On Wednesday, Major League Baseball’s 2025 international signing period opened, an annual date of significance around the sport in which top international amateur players can begin signing with MLB teams.
For 27 clubs, that meant an afternoon of flurried activity, with top international prospects officially signing deals that, in many cases, they had effectively been committed to for months, if not years.
However, for the three teams remaining in the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes — the Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays — the opening of the signing period was met with little action, as the three franchises each maintained their hard-capped pool for signing bonuses in anticipation of Sasaki’s decision, which is expected to come sometime before his posting window closes on Jan.