MLB teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers are upending their international amateur free agent classes in order to make room for Japanese ace Roki Sasaki, whose free agency might wind up changing the sport for good.

Pitcher Roki Sasaki is set to come onto the market after the international free agent signing period opens on Jan. 15. He’s set to join a number of fellow countrymen who have crossed the Pacific for bumper paydays.

Roki Sasaki can sign with Major League Baseball teams during a nine-day window starting Wednesday, an unusual free agency that caused a domino effect among Latin American teenagers whose unofficial ag