{"id":60889,"date":"2026-07-19T22:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T22:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/60889\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T22:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T22:02:10","slug":"japanese-slugger-rintaro-sasaki-to-sign-with-marlins-forgo-professional-career-in-home-country-national-sports-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/60889\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese slugger Rintaro Sasaki to sign with Marlins, forgo professional career in home country | National Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HANAMAKI, Japan (AP) \u2014 Japanese slugger <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/stanford-rintaro-sasaki-japanese-prospect-cb8716b5bfa9dfa86c3497d2179aa8a5\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rintaro Sasaki<\/a> will sign with the Miami Marlins and forgo a professional career in his home country.<\/p>\n<p>The Marlins selected Sasaki out of Stanford in the eighth round of <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/mlb-draft-all-star-peyton-barry-bonds-ac12b7d703bb2c64e8f498dfb13d5a31\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Major League Baseball&#8217;s amateur draft<\/a> last week, but the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks also selected him in the first round of the Nippon Professional Baseball draft.<\/p>\n<p>kAm%96 5:77:4F=E 564:D:@? 925 $2D2&lt;: 7:89E:?8 324&lt; E62CD 5FC:?8 2 ?6HD 4@?76C6?46 \ud83d\ude15 9:D 9@&gt;6E@H? @? $F?52J]k^Am<\/p>\n<p>kAm\u201c|@C6 E92? 2?J@?6 6=D6[ x 36=:6G6 x F?56CDE2?5 &gt;J @H? =:&gt;:E2E:@?D 2?5 9@H &gt;F49 x DE:== ?665 E@ :&gt;AC@G6[\u201d $2D2&lt;: D2:5] \u201ctG6? :7 E9:D A2E9 F=E:&gt;2E6=J EFC?D @FE E@ 36 E96 HC@?8 49@:46[ x 5@ ?@E H2?E E@ =:G6 H:E9 C68C6E] #2E96C E92? 567:?:?8 &gt;J =:76 3J H96E96C x DF44665 @C 72:=[ x H2?E E@ 567:?6 :E 3J H96E96C x 925 E96 4@FC286 E@ E2&lt;6 @? 2 492==6?86] (:E9 E92E 36=:67 \ud83d\ude15 &gt;:?5[ x F=E:&gt;2E6=J 564:565 E@ AFCDF6 E9:D A2E9]Qk^Am<\/p>\n<p>kAm$2D2&lt;: A=2J65 F?56C y2A2?6D6 DFA6CDE2C $9@96: ~9E2?:\u2019D 72E96C[ %@CF[ 2?5 \ud83d\ude00 y2A2?VD 2==\\E:&gt;6 9:89 D49@@= 9@&gt;6 CF? =6256C H:E9 `c_] w6 &gt;256 H2G6D @FE @7 9:89 D49@@=[ @AE:?8 @FE @7 E96 }:AA@? =628F6VD 5C27E k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@&gt;^2CE:4=6^C:?E2C@\\D2D2&lt;:\\;2A2?\\DE2?7@C5\\e35aa`e6fbcfebd2fhcc75ec2ed`6hfeQmE@ A=2J 2E $E2?7@C5k^2m]k^Am<\/p>\n<p>kAm%96 a`\\J62C\\@=5 7:CDE 32D6&gt;2? A=2J65 EH@ D62D@?D 2E $E2?7@C5[ 9:EE:?8 ]aea H:E9 `e 9@&gt;6CD 2?5 cf #qxD 2D 2 D@A9@&gt;@C6 =2DE J62C]k^Am<\/p>\n<p>kAm\u201cx H6?E 324&lt; 2?5 7@CE9 @? E9:D 564:D:@? F?E:= E96 G6CJ 6?5[Q $2D2&lt;: D2:5] QtG6C D:?46 x 49@D6 E@ 2EE6?5 $E2?7@C5[ x 92G6 2=H2JD 925 2 DEC@?8 56D:C6 E@ 492==6?86 &gt;JD6=7 \ud83d\ude15 E96 &amp;?:E65 $E2E6D] x? E96 6?5[ E92E 56D:C6 H@? @FE] x 76=E E92E x H2?E65 E@ D66 9@H 72C x 4@F=5 8@ 3J 492==6?8:?8 &gt;JD6=7 \ud83d\ude15 p&gt;6C:42[ 2?5 E92E 766=:?8 3642&gt;6 DEC@?86C E92? 2?JE9:?8 6=D6]\u201dk^Am<\/p>\n<p>k9C ^m<\/p>\n<p>kAmp! |{qi k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@&gt;^9F3^&gt;=3Qm9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@&gt;^9F3^&gt;=3k^2mk^Am<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HANAMAKI, Japan (AP) \u2014 Japanese slugger Rintaro Sasaki will sign with the Miami Marlins and forgo a professional&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[852,8,17,39613,39612,1050],"class_list":["post-60889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-baseball","tag-japan","tag-japanese","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-rintaro-sasaki-miami-marlins","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}