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Rintaro Sasaki: The MLBDL Experience and Data Dive

February 13, 2025
Seth Fromowitz
Prep Baseball Staff

Stanford freshman Rintaro Sasaki is pioneering a path stateside by effectively majoring in the sport he’d become known for in Japan: baseball.

Sasaski is a true student of the game, having grown up surrounded by some of the best Japanese players that took to the tutelage of his own father, Hiroshi, the baseball coach at Hanamaki Higashi High School in Japan’s Iwate Prefecture – the same program that helped grow MLB All-Stars like Shohei Ohtani and Yusei Kikuchi. Sasaki stirred his own national attention by slugging a Japanese high school record of 140 home runs during his time at Hanamaki High, and he set his sights on American horizons upon graduating, potentially paving a new path for international players like himself in this NIL era.

Sasaki ultimately decided to forgo the Nippon Professional Baseball draft, which is historically the way Japanese players transition from high school athletes into domestic professional baseball players, before the best of them embark on an MLB future. Sasaki is instead continuing his education stateside at Stanford where he’ll be eligible for the MLB Draft in 2026. He got his very first taste of American baseball last summer, too, where he suited up for the Trenton Thunder, as part of the MLB Draft League, following his high school graduation.

Making his debut with the Thunder on June 11 against the Frederick Keys, Sasaki demonstrated his power tool immediately, as he connected for a two-run homer (352 feet; 99.7 mph exit velocity) in the third inning to take the lead as his very first hit in the United States. Two at-bats later, he scorched a 105.7 mph RBI single to right field. He finished his first series in Frederick 3-for-10 with a homer and five RBIs, making an impactful first impression.

Throughout the 25 games he appeared in, Sasaki went on to hit four home runs that had an average exit velocity of 102.7 mph (106.0 max) and average distance of 377.5 feet (407-foot max). His last homer would even make the difference for the Thunder with a grand slam as Trenton won 7-1 in a combined no-hitter.

Overall, the Rintaro Sasaki experience in the MLB Draft League was an impressive preamble to what can be expected of him playing baseball in America. Offering an advanced power profile that can clear fences to all fields, while featuring above league-average discipline at the plate. In 2024, he performed better than what his expected values were tracked to be as an 18-year-old prospect in a brand new country against strong college-aged competition. He hit .221 stateside with a .395 slugging percentage and an xwOBA (.352) that practically matched his actual end-of-year number (.359).

Metrically, the power profile placed him at the top amongst qualified first-half hitters with a 92.4 mph average exit velocity (third overall) and he finished top-10 in max EV (108.1 mph). Twenty-four of the 62 balls he put in play were struck at or above an EV of 95 mph, which placed him sixth in hard-hit rate at 38.7 percent, with a 16.1 percent solid-hit rate (league average is 6.2%).

In the traditional baseball statistics, Sasaki finished the first half in the top-10 of several leaderboards among qualified players. Tied second in home runs (4), tied seventh in RBIs (17), tied third in walks (23), tied eighth in on-base percentage (.387), seventh in slugging and eighth in OPS (.782), he showed how his on-paper profiles translates to in-game production, while offering a glimpse as his potential as he continues to acclimate to a brand new environment and home.

Considered a power bat, the stereotype is to expect big swings a majority of the time that often comes with whiffs and even chases. However, with Sasaki, that wasn’t necessarily the case. He sat at league average in both chase and whiff rate, at 24 percent and 28.1 percent, respectively, and he struck out in 25 times 111 plate appearances, however, while walking (23) nearly as often.

The MLB Draft League is structured to help players boost their draft stock and display their talents in front of Major League scouts, the 2024 season was featured as a bridge with the international baseball scene. Along with Japan, the league hosted this players from all over the globe this past season, like: Dennis Kasumba (Frederick) and Sempa Shawali Sherican (Frederick) from Uganda, Joe Zhu (Frederick) and Tom Sun (Frederick) from China, Irvin Escobar (Frederick) from Puerto Rico, Sungkyung Kim (Mahoning Valley ‘24) and Chang-Yong Lee (Mahoning Valley ‘24) from South Korea, Brendan Lawson (Trenton) from Canada, Allan Gil-Fernandez (Frederick) from Puerto Rico, among others. Providing not only an opportunity to capture a glimpse at the phenomenon that is Rintaro Sasaki, but to grow the game even further worldwide.

Already receiving recognition and expectations as D1Baseball slotted Stanford as the No. 5 freshman class in the nation with 11 first-years, and many calling Sasaki one of the top projected freshman in the NCAA this spring.

It has been 36 years since 1988 when Stanford last won the College World Series. With Sasaki in the lineup, and a deep roster with 2025 MLB Draft prospects littered throughout, the Cardinal program is poised to make a run.

Follow the MLB Draft League on Instagram @mlbdraftleague plus on X @mlbdraftleague and @draftleaguedata or visit the website www.mlbdraftleague.com as the 2025 season kicks off on Wednesday, June 4.