Roki Sasaki is narrowing down his choices — and it’s bad news for both local teams.
The Yankees and Mets were each told the 23-year-old Japanese right-hander won’t be signing with them, The Post confirmed.
The three teams remaining on Sasaki’s list are the Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays, The Post’s Jon Heyman confirmed.
The Mets and Yankees were told they were out of the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes.
Sasaki generated enormous interest throughout this past season before he was posted. Other teams he has eliminated from consideration include the Cubs, Rangers and Giants.
All this comes in advance of the signing period for international free agents, which begins Wednesday.
Many around the league considered the Yankees and Mets as long-shots all along for Sasaki, who starred in Japan and was posted by his former team, the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball, prior to the start of the Winter Meetings.
Since the hard-throwing Sasaki isn’t yet 25, he’s classified by MLB as an international amateur and therefore teams are limited to their international bonus pool in terms of what they can offer him — generally around $6 million — much like Shohei Ohtani’s situation when he went to the Angels in 2018.
For much of the process, the Dodgers and Padres have been seen as the favorites for Sasaki, who idolized San Diego’s Yu Darvish when he was younger and could join a rotation in Los Angeles that will include Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto this season.
“He’s obviously a tremendous talent,” Yankees GM Brian Cashman said of Sasaki last month. “It’d be nice to have Yankee Stadium be his home, but the decision will be up to him. All we can do is share everything and anything that we can about ourselves and what we provide.”
Roki Sasaki has narrowed down his list of finalists.
But as was the case with Ohtani and Yamamoto — who signed the most lucrative contract given to a pitcher in MLB history a year ago at 12 years and $325 million — the Yankees weren’t able to land Sasaki.
Without Sasaki, the Yankees have a rotation of Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Clarke Schmidt and Luis Gil, along with Marcus Stroman, who is owed $18 million this season and could be moved.
Like Cashman, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns traveled to Japan during the season to see Sasaki and said last month the team would give it their “best shot” to land him.
Roki Sasaki is choosing between the Dodgers, Padres and Blue Jays.
Instead, they’ll move forward with a rotation that includes Kodai Senga, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, Clay Holmes and David Peterson, with names such as Paul Blackburn, Tylor Megill and Griffin Canning as possibilities for the sixth spot.
Without Sasaki taking up their international signing pool money, the Yankees can turn their attention to Manny Cedeno, a 16-year-old shortstop from the Dominican Republic they have been linked to, while the Mets are focused on Elian Pena, 17, also a shortstop from the Dominican Republic who could get as much as a $5 million signing bonus.
Next up when it comes to teams scouting Japan could be Munetaka Murakami, a corner infielder who has said 2025 will be his final season in NPB.
He’ll be 25 next month, so whenever Murakami comes to the majors, he’ll be a true free agent.
