The number one high school player out of Japan is heading to Palo Alto to play with the Stanford Cardinal in 2025. Rintaro Sasaki is bringing a lot of excitement to the college baseball world. The third baseman is a solid hitter that coaches he has played for have raved about.
In 2024, he played for the Greenville Fly Boys in the MLB Draft League, getting a sample size of 23 at-bats. In those at-bats, he hit three home runs while batting .391. He also got on base a lot this season, with a .595 on-base percentage.
Sasaki is taking that talent straight to the United States to play college instead of the Nippon Professional Baseball League. The question now is what he will provide to Stanford once the season rolls around in 2025.
The Cardinal were not too much of a power team, as they hit 55 home runs a season ago. Now that they are in the ACC, that would have ranked them tied for last in the conference along with Boston College. The ACC had a lot more heavy-hitting teams, with seven 100+ home run teams compared to just two the Pac-12 had.
Sasaki’s power from the draft league and high school in Hanamaki, Japan, will help boost that power that the Cardinal needs as they jump to a competitive conference in baseball.
He can also help patch up an infield that already has some decent hitters, like Brandon Larson and Temo Becerra, who has hit the ball with a career .302 average at Stanford. Sasaki can also fill in around Australian infielder Jimmy Nati, who really came alive during the 2024 season with a .308 average and 45 RBI.
The addition of Sasaki and his talent has made Stanford’s infield dynamic. Stanford gets some power back into the lineup with a team that struggled in 2024 with a 22-33 record. They can be a threat in the ACC as it is a historically great program that went to the College World Series in Omaha three straight times from 2021-2023.
Photo Credit: Rintaro Sasaki #3 of the Trenton Thunder at bat. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
