Rintaro Sasaki announces decision to sign with Marlins

During a press conference on Sunday in Hanamaki City, Japan, Rintaro Sasaki announced that he will be signing with the Miami Marlins, who selected him in the eighth round of last weekend's MLB Draft.

Sasaki holds Japan's all-time high school record for home runs. He didn't quite live up to the hype during his two seasons of college ball. In 106 games, he slashed .265/.391/.482 with 23 home runs and one stolen base. That's only a 96 wRC+ when adjusting for the ACC's offensive environment. He was still selected by the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in the first round of the NPB Draft last October.

Sasaki's showing at the Draft Combine in June may have helped legitimize him as a prospect. He recorded a maximum exit velocity of 115.4 mph and max distance of 458 feet while using a wood bat.

The speculation is that Sasaki's bonus with the Marlins will be similar to his draft pick's slot value of $239,200. He could have earned several multiples of that by either going to NPB or staying at Stanford for another season. Instead, the left-handed-hitting first baseman made expediting his journey to the big leagues his top priority.

In finalizing his decision now, Sasaki will be available to participate in the Marlins' annual draft camp, which takes place this coming week in South Florida.

The Marlins have until 5:00 p.m. ET on July 27 to officially sign their draftees. Soon after that, we should be seeing Sasaki make his minor league debut with either Low-A Jupiter or High-A Beloit.