Yankees Predicted to Win Teruaki Sato Sweepstakes This Offseason

After falling in the American League Division Series this year, the New York Yankees will be entering a crucial offseason.

New York played the series against the Tampa Bay Rays as tough as they could, but in the end, they couldn't take down the best team in the AL. The Yankees didn't have star Aaron Judge in the lineup due to injury, and this certainly played a role in how the series went.

Entering the offseason, the Yankees have to add more talent to the roster around their already established core. The pressure will be on the front office to add more this winter; otherwise, next season could play out in a similar way.

According to a new prediction from MLB analyst Christopher Kline of FanSided, the Yankees will win the sweepstakes to land Japanese slugger Teruaki Sato this winter. Sato has been one of the bigger storylines across baseball this offseason so far, with multiple teams looking into his services.

Sato has been posted already, giving interested teams a 45-day window to sign him before he would return to Japan. In all likelihood, Sato will find a team to sign with, and the Yankees could be the lucky winners of the sweepstakes.

New York has been projected to give him a three-year, $75 million contract, landing one of the best free agents of the offseason. The Yankees are expected to be one of the teams seriously pursuing Sato this winter, and the contract could be even larger than this projection.

In the NPB, Sato was an MVP candidate, hitting .306 with 39 home runs and a OPS of .9911 this past season. But Sato could be the perfect player to add to this lineup, giving the Yankees even more power from the left-side in the lineup.

Sato could take full advantage of the short porch in Yankee Stadium, which could help his numbers grow even more in the MLB. Most of his time in NPB was spent at third base, with Sato winning the equivalent of a Gold Glove for his defense.

But there are also concerns about how long he could play at the hot corner, which may have some teams wary of handing him a massive contract. Sato has also proven to be a durable player for his teams, playing in at least 120 games in each year, with NPB having 143-game seasons.

This is exactly the type of player that the Yankees could use going forward, giving this group some new energy heading into next season.