The Angels’ push for Teruaki Sato just got a lot tougher.
Los Angeles was already heading into a strange offseason, with the transition from Arte Moreno to Stan Kroenke still not official until early spring. That alone was going to create some friction. Now the clock on one of the club’s top rumored targets has been cut down, and the margin for error is suddenly tiny.
Sato, the Japanese infielder the Angels have been linked to multiple times this offseason, is now operating under a tighter posting window than expected. MLB and NPB decided not to pause the posting process because of the lockout, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, which means posted players must sign by December 1.
In the 2020-21 offseason, that window was frozen during the lockout and picked back up afterward. This time, it keeps moving.
That matters because Sato was one of three players posted yesterday, which leaves him with only 30 days to work out a deal. For a player who would normally have a 45-day negotiating window, that’s a serious squeeze.
Sato’s résumé is exactly why teams were interested. The 27-year-old, who will be 28 by the start of next season, won the Triple Crown in Japan’s Central League this year. He hit .306 with 39 home runs and 106 RBIs, and he also piled up 40 doubles while posting a .991 OPS.
For Angels fans, the appeal was obvious: a new ownership group with money, a star bat on the market, and a chance to get involved in a major sweepstakes. But the timing is messy. The club now has to navigate communication between the outgoing and incoming ownership groups, while also dealing with an interim GM who appears unlikely to stay.
So instead of a straightforward pursuit, the Angels are staring at a compressed deadline and an organizational shakeup at the same time. That’s a rough setup for any team trying to land a premium international free agent, and it makes the Sato chase even more complicated than it already was.
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