Yankees chances of getting Roki Sasaki sound slim after meeting with star pitcher

As Alex Bregman looks more and more like a lost cause, New York Yankees fans' hopes for one more big splash this offseason are now down to one man: Japanese righty Roki Sasaki, who has less than three weeks left to decide where he wants to begin his Major League career.

With a triple-digits fastball and wipeout splitter, Sasaki is already one of the most talented pitchers on planet Earth, having dominated Nippon Professional Baseball for the last three years. Oh, and he's not yet even in his prime at age 23, and thanks to MLB's international amateur free agency rules, he'll make just a small fraction of his true value over the life of his first contract.

The good news is that the Yankees were one of the few teams to earn an in-person meeting with Sasaki and his agent, Joel Wolfe. And New York made Ken Rosenthal's list of "obvious front-runners" for Sasaki's services, along with the Dodgers, Padres, Rangers and Mets. But it's not time for the Bronx to get its hopes up just yet. Quite the opposite, in fact: Reviews from the Yankees' meeting with the righty are in, and it seems like Brian Cashman didn't make the most of his opportunity.

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Yankees 'satisfied' with Roki Sasaki meeting, but don't get your hopes up

According to YES Network Yankees insider Jack Curry, Yankees brass was "satisfied" with their two-hour meeting with Sasaki in L.A. While every team is trying to be as buttoned-up as possible when discussing Sasaki in public, that's hardly the vibe you'd want out of New York coming out of its first chance to sit down with the hottest free agent on the market. And the bad news doesn't stop there: Curry adds that Yankees sources left feeling as though Sasaki wants to stay on the West Coast, and that it'll be tough to pry him away from either the Dodgers or Padres.

None of which can be considered a surprise, really. Sasaki has long been presumed to have a preference for the West Coast, offering him easier access to his native Japan, and L.A. and San Diego were considered the favorites evne before he was posted last month. Still, it's a tough blow for New York: The Yankees never seemed to get their hopes up about Sasaki, but landing him would've been a massive coup, and it's now looking increasingly likely that the team won't make any other significant additions before pitchers and catchers report.

It's not like Cashman hasn't been busy, between signing Max Fried and trading for Devin Williams and Cody Bellinger. But there are still real holes on the roster, from the bullpen to the infield, and adding Sasaki at such a team-friendly number would've given the team a ton of flexibility in addition to arguably the best rotation in the league.