Where Mets stand in hunt for free-agent Japanese star Roki Sasaki

DALLAS — Roki Sasaki’s free agency is set to accelerate next week, with the Japanese pitching star expected to begin convening in the U.S. with interested teams, his agent said Tuesday at the Winter Meetings.

The 23-year-old Sasaki was officially posted in recent days by the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball. The twist is he’s ineligible for a major league contract as a Japanese player under age 25 and must be signed using a team’s international bonus pool money — as was the case when Shohei Ohtani arrived to MLB before the 2018 season.

Sasaki throws a 100-mph fastball and supplements it with a splitter.

The Mets have shown interest in Sasaki — president of baseball operations David Stearns traveled to Japan in September to watch him pitch. Stearns on Tuesday indicated the Mets remain interested and were in the process of preparing a video presentation for the pitcher.

But Stearns said any potential meeting with Sasaki would be “invitation only,” meaning the Mets will have to wait and see if Sasaki is interested enough to proceed.

“We’re going to give it our best shot,” Stearns said. “It’s very difficult in these processes to truly understand what a player’s preference is. This isn’t a normal free-agent recruitment process, so we’re going to submit our presentation and materials, just like everyone else, and we’ll wait for his camp’s feedback.”