Oliver “Oli” Marmol confident on signing Japanese pitcher no matter the cost……..

The St. Louis Cardinals are not expected to be very active this offseason in terms of signing free agents. Instead, they will be looking to shed payroll. The best way for them to do that is to trade Nolan Arenado, who is owed $74 million over the final three years of his contract.

But once some of the salary from his contract is cleared out, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise to see St. Louis make a move or two. In fact, John Mozeliak has stated that he intends to make a pitch to Roki Sasaki.

“Because he is not yet 25, Sasaki is an amateur free agent and can only sign a minor league deal subject to MLB’s international bonus pool restrictions.

Perhaps St. Louis will be able to land him.

“There had been a “Will They or Won’t They” thing going on with whether the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan would post the right-hander during MLB’s 2024-25 offseason. That ended in November when the team announced its intention to do so, and Sasaki’s 45-day bidding window opened on Tuesday,” Zachary D. Rym

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