Nov. 18: The Giants announced today that Yamaguchi has indeed been posted (link via the Japan Times). Major League teams will now have 30 days to negotiate with the right-hander.
“I will take a shot at my dream of playing in the majors,” Yamaguchi said at a press conference. “I’d like to express my appreciation to Yomiuri Giants officials, manager Mr. (Tatsunori) Hara, my coaches, teammates and fans for the past three years. I will work even harder as I pursue a new challenge.”
Nov. 17: Right-hander Shun Yamaguchi has asked his team, the Yomiuri Giants, that he be posted and allowed to negotiate with MLB teams, according to reports from Sankei Sports (hat tip to reporter Jim Allen). Notably, the Giants have never posted a player in franchise history, meaning that it would be a considerable step for Yamaguchi to make it stateside.
The 32-year-old Yamaguchi has 14 years of experience in Nippon Professional Baseball, as he broke in with the Yokohama BayStars when he was just 18 years old. After making 11 starts in his first two pro seasons, Yamaguchi was moved to the bullpen, and he posted impressive numbers as Yokohama’s closer from 2009-2012. He began to transition back to starting pitching in 2014, and has worked almost exclusively out of the rotation ever since, culminating in a 2019 season that saw him lead NPB in both strikeouts (188) and wins (15) while pitching 170 innings.
As noted by Allen in a scouting report of Yamaguchi, the righty averages roughly 90.1mph on his fastball, though his top pitch is a splitter. Yamaguchi also has an off-the-field black mark on his resume, as he reportedly shoved a security guard and injured his pitching hand during a drunken incident in July 2017, though Allen notes that this seems to have been an isolated case of bad behavior.
“MLB scouts I’ve spoken to see him as either a back-of-the-rotation starter or a bullpen guy, largely because he has not established his current level of success,” Allen writes. It remains to be seen what type of interest Yamaguchi would draw in this offseason’s free agent market, though it could end up being a moot point if Yomiuri refuses to post him or release him from his contract.
Angels ?
long relief?
This is a guy that disrespects security guards enough to assault them and cares so little about his own proffession that he injures his own pitching hand in the process. Most disgusting of all, he only throws 90.1 miles per hour. That is just gross. The first 2 things are bad but can be somewhat tolerated. 90.1 mph though? That is disgusting behavior non befitting of a Major League player on this side of the Pacific.
yup
Sooo pirates ??
even jesus made mistakes when young. angels won’sign him in the presence of ohtani.
What mistakes did Jesus make when young?
to err is human.
When he was young, he was a member of a rock band that glorified hate speech against minorities. There was also one underage groupie he was very keen on. Everybody makes mistakes.
if that is the way he was it was more than a youthful mistake. hope mlb blacklist him.
But even Jesus could pitch at over 90.1 mph. I read that they used an abacus to clock Jesus at at least a 94.9 mph average fastball velocity.
as usual, incoherent!
His hate speech was aimed at Jews. His best pitch was a splitter. Like turning water into wine his splitter actually became two balls which was unhittable.
I think he’d be a good Red Sox or Yankees piece.
You must hate the Red Sox and Yankees. :-)
Dang there’s not gonna be anyone left in Japan
That’s not true at all. None of the guys coming over this year are elite talents. Kodai Senga, Seiya Suzuki, Takahito Norimoto, Taisuke Yamaoka, Tetsuto Yamada, Masataka Yoshida, Hideto Asamura, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, to name a few, are all guys in their twenties who have substantially better tools than all the guys available this offseason.
Whoosh, the sarcasm went right over your head. Just noting that there’s a lot more NPB players getting posted than in the past few years.
I’ve noticed this too. Some of the video I’ve seen from the GM meetings there’s a lot of Asian guys in the conferences. Something’s going on.
IMO they are realizing that the level of talent between the leagues is getting closer and closer, but the payday in the US is way bigger. All of these struggling Americans go over to reestablish themselves and then come back to the US for multimillion dollar contracts (with a lot of success).
I’m sure you are right.
But it does seem like more than previously. It could be a couple things. Next gen players are filling rosters all over the league, but some positions seem slower. That leaves older, more expensive players who teams already have a ton of data on. They might be thinking they are better and more experienced than our prospect movement, and rightfully so. I also wonder if we are going to see some larger scale player suspensions. Perhaps, Japan and Korea Associations know and are rushing the gates so to speak.
Not certain how this would fly with the players union, but right now they have to be wondering how they missed the recent scandal and spread in spite of all the accusations over the past few years.
Giants have a need both in the rotation and the bullpen, makes sense for them to take a chance on this guy.
32 years old, 14 seasons on that arm and can barely hit 90 mph. I can’t imagine there will be a huge market for this guy.
Not 14 full seasons of starting though, as the article mentioned. He was a reliever for a while too, which is less taxing on the arm
And only 1093 1/3 IP,
I’d imagine teams would look at him as a RP
Interesting
Your comment is equally interesting.
You serious? Remember Koji who hardly threw 85mph? Now get this. He didn’t have that ball when he was in Japan. He developed it over the course in MLB. Same can happen to Shun too.
Sure the Mariners will look at him
M’s or Angels…has he had TJ yet?
Meh. Profiles as a 5th/long guy.
Sounds like Seattle’s #3 starter to me
Sounds like the Jays number 1
Sounds like you call into the fan 590 and suggest ridiculous things like the jays should sigh Cole or Strasburg. Neither one of those guys would sign in Toronto even if Toronto offered them the most money and years.
You seem to think there’ll be a substantial market for Shun. I don’t think there will. It could be the Jays.
“I will work even harder as I pursue a new challenge.”
“So… you weren’t giving 100%?” – Yomiuri Giants
This feels like a Mets kinda guy
Fringe starter in the MLB, but if the Phillies signed him, he’d be their number 2.
It’s says he is basically a reliever
Rangers should take a flyer on him for maybe 2 years 8-10 million.
Lol teams take flyers on guys making the league min not 10 mil.
Depends on the size of the payroll.
Is this where everyone throws their favorite team in the comments? Lol
Seems like he could be a good option for a rebuilding club to take a chance on — Tigers, Royals, Orioles, Marlins, etc. If Yamaguchi proves to be a capable big-league pitcher, he could be flipped prior to the deadline.
Probably won’t work considering the signing team has to pay a posting fee.
I agree that it complicates things. But, the posting system is different now than it was back in the day — I’d assume the Y. Giants aren’t going to seek/get a huge bounty for Yamaguchi.
For example: The Mariners won the bid for Kikuchi, who is much younger and was more touted prior to his US arrival, for a tick under 10.3M.
10.3M is a sizable number to most clubs for a relief pitcher, especially since you still have to pay the pitcher on top of that.
Yamaguchi offers nowhere near the stuff and upside as Kikuchi — not to mention Kikuchi was 27yo when he was posted vs. Yamaguchi, who is already 32.
Therefore, I wasn’t saying he would get 10.3M — rather, I was trying to give an example of why Yamaguchi isn’t necessarily going to cost a ton via the posting system.
I’d like the rangers to sign him, but I think the blue jays would probably be the best fit.
Shun or ushunned?