MIAMI, Florida - New signing Rintaro Sasaki said Thursday there will be "hard work" ahead if he is to reach the majors with the Miami Marlins, but the young Japanese slugger is determined to make his dream a reality.
Sasaki opted to sign with the Marlins, who took him in the eighth round of Major League Baseball's amateur draft last week, rather than return to Stanford University or join the SoftBank Hawks, who made him their first pick in Nippon Professional Baseball's draft last October.
The 21-year-old infielder aims to become the latest MLB player to emerge from Iwate Prefecture's Hanamaki Higashi High School, following in the footsteps of Yusei Kikuchi and Shohei Ohtani, both of whom were coached by Sasaki's father.
"My dream is always going to be how I'm going to make the big leagues as soon as possible," Sasaki said at his introductory press conference in Miami. "So, that's a big reason for choosing (the Marlins). Miami is giving me a great opportunity."
Sasaki, who played two seasons of college baseball for Stanford, said the Marlins made him "feel so very welcome," while also providing a detailed blueprint on how they planned to develop him into an MLB-level player.
"That's actually a big reason for deciding here," he said. "It's going to be hard work...(trying) to improve...to get better at everything."
Sasaki said that as a teenager, he regularly watched Marlins games featuring Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki, who spent three seasons in Miami from 2015 to 2017 and recorded his 3,000th MLB hit with the club.
"I actually care for and really respect him for playing here," Sasaki said. "And now I'm here, I'm so glad."
