The Yankees were told on Monday that they were out of the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes, as the Japanese phenom has narrowed his potential landing spots to the Dodgers, Padres, and Blue Jays.
Sasaki’s decision represents the latest Japanese star to turn down New York, as Yoshinobu Yamamoto chose Los Angeles last offseason despite the Yanks offering the highest AAV, and Shohei Ohtani declined the Bronx in favor of the Angels years earlier.
For Sal Licata, Sasaki’s decision, and the recent trend of Japanese stars spurning Gotham, represents a trend where the Yankees clearly don’t have the same lure for the biggest stars from overseas.
“The Yankees should be enough, as far as the prestige goes, to offset some of the negatives we have here, like bad weather,” Sal said. “Those things are out of the Yankees control. However, it used to mean something to these players coming over from Japan to be a Yankee.
“Since Ohtani...these are three major players that basically had no interest in New York, or the Yankees specifically.”
Sal doesn’t see it as a knock on the Yanks, but it does show that the days of Hideki Matsui and Masahiro Tanaka are over, as the Bombers are now underdogs with the best players from Japan, as many modern players are choosing the Pacific coast.
“It’s the world famous New York Yankees,” Sal said. “They’re still that, even with not winning the World Series since 2009. It’s still the biggest brand in sports. Have the Dodgers eclipsed that now?”
BT also isn’t blaming the Yankees, and says they simply don’t have the same aura as before as new generations of players weren’t growing up during the years of the 90s dynasty.
“I can’t blame the Yankees here,” BT said. “It’s not like they came small on the money. The money was what it was with the international bonus pool.”