{"id":4902,"date":"2026-07-19T19:10:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T19:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4902"},"modified":"2026-07-19T19:10:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T19:10:23","slug":"japanese-slugger-rintaro-sasaki-from-stanford-to-sign-with-marlins-forgo-pro-career-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4902","title":{"rendered":"Japanese slugger Rintaro Sasaki from Stanford to sign with Marlins, forgo pro career in Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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HANAMAKI, Japan (AP) \u2014 Japanese slugger Rintaro Sasaki from Stanford will sign with the Miami Marlins and forgo a professional career in his home country.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump celebrates the World Cup as a US victory as he prepares to present trophy to the winning team<\/a><\/p>\n

The Marlins selected Sasaki in the eighth round of Major League Baseball\u2019s amateur draft last week, but the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks also selected him in the first round of the Nippon Professional Baseball draft.<\/p>\n

The difficult decision had Sasaki fighting back tears during a news conference in his hometown on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than anyone else, I believe I understand my own limitations and how much I still need to improve,\u201d Sasaki said. \u201cEven if this path ultimately turns out to be the wrong choice, I do not want to live with regret. Rather than defining my life by whether I succeed or fail, I want to define it by whether I had the courage to take on a challenge. With that belief in mind, I ultimately decided to pursue this path.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Review: Rock icon showcases lost \u201990s classic during only West Coast dates<\/a><\/p>\n

Sasaki played under Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani\u2019s father, Toru, and is Japan\u2019s all-time high school home run leader with 140. He made waves out of high school, opting out of the Nippon league\u2019s draft to play at Stanford.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old first baseman played two seasons at Stanford, hitting .262 with 16 homers and 47 RBIs as a sophomore last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went back and forth on this decision until the very end,\u201d Sasaki said. \u201cEver since I chose to attend Stanford, I have always had a strong desire to challenge myself in the United States. In the end, that desire won out. I felt that I wanted to see how far I could go by challenging myself in America, and that feeling became stronger than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Who\u2019s playing in the World Cup today? Here\u2019s how to watch the final<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marlins’ eighth-round pick from Stanford was also a first-round pick in Japan by the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, but chose to play in the U.S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\nJapanese slugger Rintaro Sasaki from Stanford to sign with Marlins, forgo pro career in Japan - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4902\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japanese slugger Rintaro Sasaki from Stanford to sign with Marlins, forgo pro career in Japan - 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