Orioles appear to move on from Roki Sasaki with expected international signings

One of the big questions surrounding the Baltimore Orioles over the offseason is how they would address their need for starting pitching. The Orioles lost their ace, Corbin Burnes, to free agency and are not expecting to have Kyle Bradish healthy until the second half of the season at the earliest. There was early speculation that they would have a chance to land Japanese sensation Roki Sasaki, but that ship appears to have sailed.

Once it was announced that Sasaki would delay being posted by his Japanese team, the Orioles went from a likely landing spot to completely forgotten. The delay in posting allowed for the international bonus pool to reset for each team. No team has enough pool money to offer anything close to what the Los Angeles Dodgers gave Yoshinobu Yamamoto last season, but Sasaki is expected to get the entire bonus from whatever team he does sign with.

Instead of waiting to see what decision Sasaki makes, the Orioles have returned to the Latin American pool they have recently become so invested in. The Birds dove into the international pool in 2021 when they signed Samuel Basallo, who has since become the organization's top prospect and is expected to debut in the majors this coming season. They continue to sign prospects from that region and even built their own training facility in the Dominican Republic.

Orioles shift focus away from Roki Sasaki and back toward a group of Latin American prospects

The O's have had success in signing international prospects over the last few seasons. Currently 12 of their top 30 prospects were signed as international free agents out of Latin America. Recently, baseball insider Francys Romero reported that the Orioles are expected to continue to sign young international players.

None of the players Romero mentions are on MLB's top 50 international prospects list and it is unknown at this time how much the Orioles intend to sign them for. The Birds have nearly $7 million in international bonus pool money to work with and it appears they will continue down the path that they're currently on instead of putting all of their eggs into one basket.