Yomiuri Giants right-hander Thyago Vieira is drawing interest from Major League clubs as the offseason approaches, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweets. The flamethrowing righty appeared in parts of three big league seasons with the Mariners and White Sox, from 2017-19, before signing overseas in Japan.
Things have gone well for Vieira, 28, in Nippon Professional Baseball. He’s totaled 80 innings out of the Giants’ bullpen over the past two seasons, logging a combined 3.04 ERA with a 26.9% strikeout rate and a 12.4% walk rate.
Vieira averaged 97 mph on his heater during his brief big league run and has the ability to reach triple digits with that fastball — a pitch that drew 80 grades on the 20-80 scouting scale in reports at FanGraphs and MLB.com back in his prospect days. He doesn’t appear to have lost any life on the pitch, as Vieira hit 166 kilometers/103 miles per hour with that pitch earlier this year (YouTube link). Vieira has also drawn praise in the past for an above-average breaking ball, but command (or lack thereof) has generally been problematic. He walked 11.2% of his MLB opponents and 11% of the batters he faced in Triple-A.
Based on his work in NPB to date, those same command problems still exist, but the appeal of that huge fastball and some quality run-prevention numbers in Japan still seem to have drummed up some interest. Feinsand suggests as many as five MLB teams have interest, although the extent of that interest surely varies.
The looming offseason features a relatively thin market for right-handed relievers. Raisel Iglesias is the clear top name available, with pitchers like Kendall Graveman, Corey Knebel, Ryan Tepera and Mark Melancon making up the second tier. Vieira would have the top fastball of any reliever on the market, but it remains to be seen if interest will be substantial enough for him to come back from Japan. Given his success in NPB, he’d surely have some guaranteed offers to remain overseas, so a big league club would presumably need to make a decent offer on a Major League contract.
In Japanese, Thyago translates as “walks many.”
My guess is he comes back to MLB. A good breaking ball paired with a 103mph fastball seems like it may be too tempting for GM’s to turn down. He may now work out if he doesn’t get the walks under control but my guess is he will get his shot. I think they have a smaller strike zone in Japan though so the walks could get a little better.
Thoughts and prayers for his future success.
@The Mets the guy has control issues and that is concerning to any GM. The ball is smaller in Japan than in the USA. Strike Zone is not as small as you think. The parks aren’t that big either and to have a 3 ERA, is intriguing. But that walk rate is something that weighs heavy on many minds. I feel a bottom feeder team like the Pirates could potentially sign him to a 2-3 year deal at avg of 1.2 million per year (at best). Anyone team that is a big spender, will pass on him from concerns of his walk rate and control issues. Adonis Chapman had similar issues but quickly figured it out. Thyago hasn’t done that in the US or Japan.
If he’s “drawing interest”, it means teams want him, so assume he’s not getting a low-ball offer from the Pirates or any other cheap team.
Calling Chapman an “Adonis” is a bit much, not my thing but I’d say he’s a 4/10 at best.
Except he’s Brazilian.
And yours translates as “does not get jokes.”
If the Angels had any sense they wouldn’t let Iglesias go, but this is Arte Moreno we’re talking about here, so…
Dude don’t even get me started on owners. Have you heard of Stuart Sternberg?
You mean the majority owner of the Rays? Yeah, him and John Fisher are 2 peas in a pod. Ill say atleast for Arte, he’s willing to empty his pockets for his team.
The Ray’s average 9000 fans a year and still put together a winning club year after year. Even the GOAT missed this year after dropping that contract down on him. Sometimes it pays not to pay.
TB has the most productive front office in Baseball. Their system has consistently produced quality major league quality prospects. They play in the worst market and the worst stadium, yet they are competitive year after year with a minuscule payroll in the toughest division in MLB.
I am an Angels fan and I am envious of the Rays Organization.
M
Look, @trout. I have complete respect for them & their Little Engine That Could stuff. They have absolutely taken it to us the past couple years.
But the narrative around them is much larger than the actuality. Check the standings for the past decade. I can assure you, they actually are not “competitive year after year.”
& – believe it or not, they actually lose some trades & make some poor free agent choices too. Just like everyone else, man. Less so of late, but they are not nearly as infallible as the narrative on the board claims.
You have no idea what you are talking about. The Rays have made playoffs 7 of last 14 years and havee the 5th best mlb record during that period,so your comment regarding the rays not being consistantly competitive is ignorant
We have different definitions of “constant” & “competitive” then. It appears we can add the word “ignorant” to that list as well.
7 out of 14 looks to be exactly half (50%) the time. Ya know?
But maybe we do math differently too.
5th best record out of 30 teams during last 14 years. For most thinking people that would qualify as constant and competitive. But i guess by your “logic” the pats werent constant and competitive because they only won 6 superbowls in 20 years. That’s less then 30 percent…ya know?
Didn’t look up total wins.
I focused on actual results/season.
So I am merely using those words in their accepted fashion. “Constant” – for example – means; ‘over a continuous period of time’. Two straight years seems light as a citation of “continuous”. After all, “continuous” & “a 5couple” are markedly different.
I’m a fan of an AL East team. Looking at playoff appearances/record the Ray’s have good seasons half the time. That tallies with my perception & take. Citing that – however – seems to have triggered you for some reason.
& comparing playoff appearances to championships seems…well, a bit ignorant if we are throwing that word around. (I’d go with “moronic” actually.)
So unless you win a championship every year you are not a winner,so espn, .mlb network and others who say they are one of the most succesful teams over the the last decade and a half are wrong.. got it. And btw anyone who uses the word triggered is trying to hard to be hip and woke. “Let’s go Brandon”
“So unless you win a championship every year you are not a winner.” Are you having some reading issues today?
Because that is not what I posted. Once again, just looked at record/playoff appearances to define “competitive”. Have a good one, bud.
Go ahead & get mad or whatever if that’s your deal. Doesn’t change the fact that the Ray’s are competitive half the time.
Softbank’s closer this year was nasty. I can’t remember his name but I believe he’s a Lefty from the Caribbean
Livan Moinelo? He was a setup man, not the Hawks’ closer, but he did have five saves.
Kenley Jansen?
“We could fix Vieira in ten minutes” -every mlb front office
Not the Mets, considering they don’t have a front office.
How much will guys like Graveman, Knebel and Tepera get? Any or all of them would look good in Angels red. Maybe Viera, as well…
Knebel is coming off of a $5+ million dollar deal with the Dodgers and will likely expect at least the same this winter. Graveman had a great season at just over a million dollars and is certain to quadruple that. Tepera was a steal last year at under a million dollars and can probably expect somewhere in the $3-4 million range.
If Knebel is worth 5 million, what are Minter, Matzek, and Jackson worth.
I could see him end up in California. The Brewers on the other hand should sign Knebel and trade Hadar for a couple of bats just hook JBJ to that trade.
Agents should start quoting their client’s fastball speeds in KPH…
27 walks in 58 JPL INGs ain’t gonna cut it.
What’s JPL?
He always had nasty stuff. Just zero control
Thyago Viera reminds me of Marc Kroon for some odd reason.
Scott McGough is a safer target in my opinion as he walks a lot fewer batters.
Scott got 105M yen / 966K USD this year from Yakult. Based on this year performance (his best so far in Japan, 31 saves with 2.52 ERA), IMHO he probably could land a nice contract from Yakult for next year, somewhere around 1.5-2M USD. So any MLB teams who wants his service probaby must offer at least the same amount of money tbat Yakult offered.
And dont forget that Yomiuri Giants or Softbank Hawks sometimes crash the party and offering more money like they did with Wladimir Balentien (Yakult offered multi year 400M per year, Softbank offered 500M per year) or Seth Greisinger. After he posted 16-8 record with 2.84 ERA in 2007, Yomiuri snatched him with bigger contract.
P.S: Today is Mcgough birthday
Happy birthday Scott
The next Chris Flexon