Craig Breslow confirms Red Sox have not met with Roki Sasaki

Red Sox fans hoping for a Roki Sasaki Boston jersey under the Christmas tree should be disappointed.

Although the 23-year-old Japanese pitching phenom has already started meeting with MLB teams since being assigned to his NPB team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, earlier this month, Craig Breslow confirmed to The Boston GlobeIt is Alex Speier that Boston has yet to meet with Sasaki and his camp.

“For the moment, we [have a meeting scheduled]. But I don’t know if that’s definitive,” Breslow told Speier. “We have obviously been engaged and would welcome the opportunity to participate in the process, and hope we get the chance to do so.”

Even though West Coast MLB teams like the Dodgers and Padres have been considered favorites to sign Sasaki, Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com noted that Boston needs to push for the young right-hander’s services.

“In the AL, the Red Sox are very serious about making a pitch to Team Sasaki,” Mayo wrote. “The biggest selling point might be the history of Japanese pitchers having success and positive experiences playing in Boston: Daisuke Matsuzaka, Uehara and Junichi Tazawa.

“They have an impressive pitching development program and it certainly doesn’t hurt when general manager Craig Breslow can talk about it directly (instead of just taking it to the ‘experts’). Breslow also personally scouted Sasaki for one of his departures to Japan in September.

Sasaki went 10-5 with a 2.35 ERA last season in Japan, striking out 129 while walking 32 in 111 innings of work. In his four seasons in NPB, Sasaki is 29-15 with a 2.10 ERA and 505 strikeouts in 394.2 innings.

Beyond Sasaki’s age and impressive stats in Japan, the young ace is considered a hot offseason target due to his cheap price tag.

Because Sasaki is an “international amateur” rather than an unrestricted free agent, whatever team ultimately signs him must sign him to a cheaper minor league contract – rather than something that apparent in the 12-year, $325 million deal that then-25 12-year-old right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed with the Dodgers last offseason.

“According to reports and comments from officials of various teams, the Yankees, Mets, Cubs and Rangers met with Sasaki, while the Giants (according to Chronicle of San Francisco) are “suspected” of having met the right-hander,” Speier wrote.

Conor Ryan is a writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.