Like every competent team in baseball, the Giants were in on the hot-shot Japanese free-agent pitcher, who, like Shohei Ohtani before him, is limited to signing a minor-league deal with a Major League team. That massively discounted rate allowed every team to sign him.

The Giants made an in-person pitch to Sasaki in Los Angeles but were told he's narrowed his list of potential teams and they aren't on it.