Teruaki Sato Has Been Posted for MLB Teams: What the Dec. 1 Lockout Deadline Means for Japan’s Triple Crown Winner
The best hitter in Japan is available, and he has about four weeks to find a team before the sport stops taking calls.
The Hanshin Tigers posted Teruaki Sato on Sunday, Nov. 1, the first day NPB clubs could do it. All 30 MLB teams were free to begin negotiating with him Monday. The nominal deadline is Dec. 16 at 5 p.m. ET, 45 days out. The real one is Dec. 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET.
Why the Deadline Moved
The collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET, and a lockout beginning Dec. 2 is widely expected. A lockout freezes all transactions involving 40-man roster players.
During the 2021-22 lockout, MLB paused the posting windows for Japanese players. Seiya Suzuki signed with the Cubs eight days after that lockout ended. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported there will be no such accommodation this time, and Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY wrote that MLB confirmed it is not amending its posting agreement. The players’ association told agents to prepare for a hard stop.
So Sato has about 30 days of market, not 45. What happens to a posted player still unsigned when a lockout starts is not cleanly settled in the reporting, and anyone stating it with certainty is guessing.
What Hanshin Is Selling
Sato is 27, a left-handed hitter listed at 6-foot-2 and 209 pounds, and he just won the Central League Triple Crown: .306 with 39 home runs and 106 RBI in 143 games, slashing .306/.383/.609 for a .991 OPS. The league as a whole hit .236/.301/.350 this season. He is the ninth NPB player to win a Triple Crown and the second Hanshin Tiger to do it, after Randy Bass in 1986.
He was also the 2025 Central League MVP, with 40 homers and a .579 slugging mark, and he won a Golden Glove at third base that year. Across six seasons in Hanshin he hit .271 with 163 home runs and 518 RBI in 803 games, clearing 20 homers five times. A second straight MVP looks likely, though it had not been announced as of this week.
The concerns are real. He made contact on 66 percent of his swings in 2026 against a 77 percent MLB average, his chase rate sits in the bottom third of NPB hitters, and his glove at third has never been trusted: he committed an NPB-worst 43 errors there across 2023 and 2024. Most evaluators expect him at first base or in a corner outfield spot, and he has never played professional first base.
Who Wants Him
Jon Heyman of the New York Post linked the Mets, Yankees, Dodgers and Phillies to Sato in August. The Mets have done the most legwork: president of baseball operations David Stearns flew to Japan in September to watch him, and SNY reported a separate scouting trip. First base in Queens is open after Pete Alonso’s departure. Phillies general manager Preston Mattingly scouted Sato in May, and Philadelphia watched him again during October’s Climax Series, per Yahoo Japan.
Keith Law of The Athletic projects at least $25 million a year on a four- or five-year deal and says Sato should blow past what Kazuma Okamoto and Munetaka Murakami signed for last winter. Whichever club wins him also owes Hanshin a release fee: 20 percent of the first $25 million guaranteed, 17.5 percent of the next $25 million, and 15 percent of everything above $50 million.
The Comparables Cut Both Ways
Murakami went to the White Sox on a two-year, $34 million deal and hit .207 with 35 home runs and an .825 OPS in his first MLB season. Okamoto signed for four years and $60 million in Toronto and hit .232 with 33 homers and a .762 OPS. The power survived the trip. The batting average did not.
Sato arrives a better hitter than either of them was, and with a month on the clock.
Three others were posted the same day: Seibu right-hander Kaima Taira, who went 12-5 with a 1.36 ERA; Nippon-Ham right-hander Hiromi Itoh, the 2025 Sawamura Award winner; and Hanwha infielder Roh Si-Hwan of the KBO, whose window is only 30 days.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
