The Dodgers have passed first baseman/corner outfielder Yoshi Tsutsugo through outright waivers, Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times was among those to relay. He’ll remain with the organization at Triple-A Oklahoma City but no longer occupies a spot on the 40-man roster.
The Rays originally signed Tsutsugo to a two-year, $12MM contract during the 2019-20 offseason after he’d put together a standout career in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He never carried that success over with Tampa Bay, though, hitting just .187/.292/.336 across 272 plate appearances with the Rays. Tampa Bay designated him for assignment in mid-May, and the Dodgers acquired him for cash considerations or a player to be named later, assuming a little more than $430K of Tsutsugo’s contract in the process.
Tsutsugo only picked up 31 plate appearances with the Dodgers before landing on the injured list with a right calf strain. He’s been on a minor league rehab assignment after recovering from that injury, but the twenty-day period allotted for rehab assignments was set to expire. Los Angeles has since gotten back Cody Bellinger from his own IL stint, while Albert Pujols has been decent as a part-time first baseman and bench bat. That evidently left no room on the roster for Tsutsugo.
The 29-year-old will remain as hand as high minors depth. Should the need for a left-handed corner bat emerge in the next few months, the Dodgers could give Tsutsugo another look, but he’d need to again be selected to the 40-man roster.
When was he put on waivers?
wait, Rays plunked down 7 million for him?
Imagine if they Rays actually hit on free agents how good they can be.. Seems they always sign old DH types or crappy pitchers aside from Morton. Still can’t believe Archer got a major league deal. It was literally painful watching him pitch in Pittsburgh.
The Rays ate 5M of the remaining part of the deal, per MLBTR. It figures out, considering the games played, that the Dodgers were only paying the minimum.
really no claims on him? Wow
Why claim a piece of crap?
Friedman hid him on the 10 day and then snuck him through at a better time.
Snuck him through? He’s beyond awful no one would want him obviously.
Friedman claimed him on waivers.
Timing can be as important as performance.
What a piece of garbage this guy was one of the worst overseas busts ever
To be fair he only had about 300 PA spread over about a season and a half… hard to really know what he would’ve been capable of with regular ABs and some time. It took JP Crawford and Byron Buxton well more than that to adjust to MLB pitching for example.
He has zero of the defense and speed those guys have. He has no talent whatsoever. Worst signing in rays history
Ok, David Ortiz, JD Martinez, Carlos Pena, Luke Voit… etc. Point being; sometimes it takes a while for things to click. Some people get longer leashes than others, sometimes a change of scenery helps, and more players don’t pan out than do. But, in any case I trust the Rays to know talent better than you and hope they aren’t scared of taking risks like that again in the future.
Oh, and as for worst signings in Rays history: Pat Burrell, Grant Balfour, Juan Guzman, and Manny Ramirez all say “hi”.
@elmedius
Man, what are you smoking putting Balfour in that list. He had two seasons of 1.54ERA and 2.28ERA, the other two seasons were not that great, but to call him a “worst signing in Rays history”, what an absolute joke.
Still worse than any of those names
$12mil for -0.3 WAR in 14-15. Not the first contract. Or did you forget about his second stint in Tampa?
Imagine if the twins didn’t release Ortiz. They might have one those world series instead of Boston. I remember seeing an old video clip of him on the twins. The announcers couldn’t even say his right. They said it like Or-a-tez
Calling him “a piece of garbage” is unnecessarily cruel. He’s been a bust, but there’s no need for the insult.
All things considered, that dishonor has to go to Jung Ho Kang.
Or Trevor Bauer
real bust…
They should just let him go home to Japan because obviously he’s more comfortable there and will be successful again in that league.
Okay, I’ll say it.
Yoshi, why does your breath smell like Peach?