Japanese phenom Rintaro Sasaki signs NLI with Stanford BSB
On Tuesday, Stanford baseball announced that they have signed Japanese phenom Rintaro Sasaki as part of their 2025 class. Sasaski was down to Stanford, Cal, Vanderbilt, and UCLA before ultimately signing his NLI (National Letter of Intent) with the Cardinal.
Sasaki played his high school baseball at Hanamaki Higashi High School located in the Iwate Prefecture on Japan’s island of Honshu. The same high school that Japanese superstar and current Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder/pitcher Shohei Ohtani played at. He will graduate from high school in March and enroll at Stanford in April for their spring quarter, giving him a chance to practice with the team and get used to life at Stanford in advance of fall ball.
"We are excited to welcome Rintaro into our Stanford family," Stanford head coach David Esquer said in the team release. "He may be the most high-profile international prospect to play college baseball in the United States in a long time. His power bat plays right into our style of play, and we look forward to him contributing immediately to help us achieve our goals of competing for and winning national titles.”
Sasaki is a major talent. He was projected to go #1 overall in the Nippon Professional Baseball Draft and set Japan’s high school record for most home runs with 140. Rather than going pro, he has decided to forge his own path by playing college baseball instead. When looking at the final four schools he was considering, education is clearly something that matters a great deal to him. He has drawn comparisons to former Milwaukee Brewers slugger Prince Fielder and projects to play at first base for the Cardinal, though he’ll likely also see some time at designated hitter.
In their release, Stanford said the following about Sasaki: “According to scouts, in addition to boasting elite raw power, Sasaki has also shown an advanced approach at the plate - walking twice as many times as he struck out. Training under his father, Hiroshi Sasaki, Sasaki posted an impressive slash line of .413/.514/.808 during his high school career.”
When looking at those numbers, it’s clear that he can do a lot more than just hit home-runs. He’s just an all-around great bat and someone who will be able to help out their lineup in a variety of ways.
For Stanford, Rintaro Sasaki is a big-time get. He brings a powerful bat, major-league talent, and on top of that give the program exposure in Japan, a country that produces a lot of top baseball players. It’ll be fun to see what Sasaki brings to Stanford in 2025 and beyond. As they look to maintain their level of reaching the College World Series, adding a guy like this is huge to keeping that momentum going.
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