DALLAS -- The Brewers can¡¯t offer the geography of MLB¡¯s coastal cities, nor the thrill of teaming with a fellow Japanese star like the Dodgers¡¯ Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Padres¡¯ Yu Darvish or the Cubs¡¯ Seiya Suzuki and Shota Imanaga. But what Milwaukee could offer Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki is something his agent suggested he might like: Relative peace and quiet.

The Sasaki sweepstakes began Tuesday, a day after the right-hander was posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines and instantly became one of the top free agents still on the market. The Brewers are a long shot to land Sasaki, but they¡¯ll almost certainly prepare a pitch anyway, because he¡¯s one of the most talented young pitchers in the world, available at an extreme bargain. Sasaki is subject to international bonus pool restrictions while making the leap from Japan¡¯s top league to MLB.

Think not of Yamamoto, who signed with the Dodgers last offseason for $325 million. Think instead of Ohtani, who was 23 in 2017 when he signed with the Angels for a $2.315 million signing bonus, then earned the league minimum while winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award the following season.

Which team wouldn¡¯t take a shot on that? Sasaki will have his pick of MLB and in this instance, the Brewers, while widely considered an extreme underdog, have a minor leg up because, at $7,555,500, they are among the eight clubs with the highest international bonus pools for the 2025 signing period (the Reds, Tigers, Marlins, Twins, A¡¯s, Mariners and Rays are the others).

Of those clubs -- and every club in MLB, for that matter -- Milwaukee is the smallest media market. In this unique case, that might be a selling point.

¡°I mean, I think that there's an argument to be made that a smaller mid-market team might be more beneficial for him as a soft landing coming from Japan, given what he's been through and not having an enjoyable experience with the media,¡± said Sasaki¡¯s agent, Joel Wolfe. ¡°It might be. I'm not saying it will be. I don't know how he's going to view it. It might be beneficial for him to be in a smaller market. But I really don't know how he looks at it yet, because I haven't had a chance to really sit down and discuss it with him in great detail.¡±

International baseball fans learned during the 2023 World Baseball Classic what Sasaki has been through. His first start in that tournament came on the anniversary of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan, in which Sasaki lost his father and grandparents, and his family's house in Rikuzentakata was swept away.

Baseball, Sasaki has said, has helped him persevere. Over parts of four seasons with Chiba Lotte, he posted a 2.02 ERA with 524 strikeouts and 91 walks in 414 2/3 innings, with a perfect game and a triple-digit fastball on his resume. But his desire to leave Japan for MLB, according to Wolfe, has created some difficulty.

¡°There's been a lot of negativity in the media directed at him because he has expressed interest in going to play for MLB at such a young age, and that's considered in Japan to be very disrespectful and sort of swimming upstream,¡± Wolfe said. ¡°A lot of people jumped on board there, creating some false rumors about him and his family, and it was very detrimental to his mental state.¡±

A number of MLB teams have openly stated their admiration for Sasaki and intend to try to sign him. Padres manager Mike Shildt said the Padres would ¡°put the full-court press to make it happen¡± and were ¡°very optimistic." Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman called Sasaki ¡°a major priority.¡± Even the Reds are publicly in, with president of baseball ops Nick Krall revealing that Cincinnati has scouted Sasaki and saying, ¡°We¡¯re going to try and do our best.¡±

Make of it what you will, but the Brewers are taking a much less public approach. GM Matt Arnold declined to say whether Milwaukee has scouted Sasaki in person and didn¡¯t definitively say the Brewers would prepare a presentation and an offer.

¡°I hear he¡¯s pretty good,¡± Arnold said coyly.

When pressed on the matter, Arnold said, ¡°I¡¯m probably not going to talk too much about free agents, but he¡¯s interesting. ¡­ He¡¯s a really interesting arm.¡±

An interesting arm at a great price. One team is going to feel as elated as the Angels did seven years ago when they landed Ohtani.

¡°My advice to Roki,¡± Wolfe said, ¡°is to go in with an open mind.¡±