June 26: Akiyama has signed a three-year deal with the NPB’s Hiroshima Carp, per C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic.
June 20: Former Reds outfielder Shogo Akiyama is headed back to Japan, Akiyama himself tells Japanese media (English languagelink via the Japan Times). A report from The Manichi in Japan suggests that Akiyama’s former team, the Seibu Lions, could have an offer waiting for him.
Originally signed by the Reds to a three-year, $21MM contract heading into the 2020 season, Akiyama was never able to replicate the star-level production he’d showed with the Lions over a nine-year career in Nippon Professional Baseball. The now-34-year-old outfielder tallied just 366 plate appearances with Cincinnati and posted an underwhelming .224/.320/.274 batting line — a far cry from the brilliant .301/.376/.454 batting line he posted in nine years with his former Seibu club.
The Reds released Akiyama partway through the third and final season of that contract, and he quickly landed a minor league deal with the Padres. Akiyama recently opted out of that contract, however, and he tells the Japanese media that his agent informed him there were no offers from big league teams. Akiyama didn’t specify whether that meant no Major League offers or no offers at all, but given that he just hit .343/.378/.529 with three homers, two doubles, a triple and a pair of steals in 16 games with the Padres’ Triple-A affiliate in El Paso, it wouldn’t be a surprise if there had been other minor league opportunities available.
It remains to be seen whether Akiyama will ultimately return to the Lions, sign with another team in NPB, or simply take the remainder of the year off. However, his return and acknowledgement of a lack of MLB interest looks to have closed the door on any near-term return to North American ball. He only recently turned 34, though, so Akiyama ought to have other opportunities to add to an impressive collection of accolades in Japan, where he’s a six-time Gold Glove winner and five-time NPB All-Star.
Is it just me or have the players coming over from Japan in recent years not been as good as previous years? My take is anecdotal and haven’t dug into stats but curious if anyone has a good read into this?
I’m noticing older players coming over. Shohei Ohtani is an exception.
There must have been something else going on. The Padres were in need of an outfielder and they brought up two different guys over Akiyama. Why would they do that?
Having an additional Japanese player on the Padres would have also possibly encouraged a few more ticket sales. The Japanese population in San Diego is larger than many other MLB cities.
Having an outfielder hitting above .270 would have been nice.
Who were the two other guys? Nomar Mazara is hitting .327. What other outfielder was called up recently?
Are you whinging over the Padres not signing a player? They sign literally everyone give it a rest bro
If we’re talking free agents from Japan, then yeah, they’re usually a bit older. NPB players have to wait longer for free agency than in MLB. If a younger player comes to the US, it’s via the posting system (e.g. Ohtani).
I think you forgot about the Japanese Babe. Seiya was off to a hot start but regressed a bit as expected, will see how he finishes the season though and he’s only 27.
Suzuki jammed his finger against second base on May 26 and it’s not healing well.
Plus the dude at 2nd barrel rolled over him and his arm/hand too. That didn’t help. That made it a lot worse.
Seems to be the trend of recent years that the vast majority of hitters from Asia don’t live up to expectations and the pitchers are much more likely to. Obviously Ohtani is an exception, but there have been a very high number of flops for position players from those leagues. After a hot start, Seiya Suzuki even seems to be coming back down to earth.
He hasn’t played in a month.
@keysox No he hasn’t, but @stan was referring to how much he’s cooled off prior to getting injured, since his hot 2-week stretch to begin the season.
I thought Daisuke was kinda a bust for the money involved… who else?
Well let’s see, Higashioka not going anywhere, Yamamoto coming up from Mets, Sano doing quite well so l’d say it’s just you.
Jordan Yamamoto? He’s an American who was originally drafted by the Brewers: https://www.mlb.com/player/jordan-yamamoto-657141.
Kyle Higashioka? Dude is a California surf bum. I think the user should be named ArianaWhiffsAgain
Literally none of those players you mentioned are Japanese, only one was a foreign signing, and they all suck. So I’d say it’s just you.
This was funny stuff, Ariana.
I know the players want to play in the majors but they should be required to at least spend some time in the minors to get up to speed with American level baseball.
Ichiro didn’t, and he was the AL MVP in his first season.
@Fink Ployed
How many Ichiros have come from Japan? Most of them are falling on their face.
Seiya Suzuki has a 117 OPS+ in his rookie year.
Johjima had a 103 OPS+ in his rookie year.
Aoki had a 109 OPS+ in his rookie year.
Iguchi had a 104 OPS+ in his rookie year.
Iwamura had a 105 OPS+ in his rookie year.
Hideki Matsui had a 109 OPS+ in his rookie year.
Ohtani had a 151 OPS+ in his rookie year.
A league-average OPS+ is 100. Why should any of those players been required to start in the minors?
And Ichiro threw 93 mph for the opening pitch at, like, 50 or whatever he is…. He’s awesome, man.
That dude could probably still outplay most of these young bucks in the OF. Probably still hit sbetter than Aaron Hicks…lol.
@Fink Ployed
And look how great 5 of the 7 turned out?
Seiya Suzuki – Had a decent April and then pitchers figured him out and he’s hitting around .200.
Johjima burned out after 2 seasons.
Aoki burnt out after 3 or 4 seasons.
Iguchi burnt out after 2 seasons.
Iwamura burnt out after 2 seasons
I don’t want to invest in any of that, even for the possibility that they might be good. They should start in the minors so they can condition themselves to stay longer than a few years.
Does that really make sense to you — that a player with 8 years in the Japanese league needs to “condition himself”?
To be fair, Shogo only had 366 plate appearances — exactly half coming from the ‘2o season (a tough year to truly evaluate). That’s not to say Akiyama would’ve been a star, however. But, there’s a lot that goes into jumping from the NPB to MLB — and vice-versa. Pair that with a relatively small sample, and the weirdness that was the last couple of seasons — it’s tough to definitively say he wasn’t good.
… says his agent.
@IjustloveBaseball
The guy had thousands of PA in NPB. As I said, I think most of them should be sent to the minors to get up to speed. If they can’t make it in the minors, they don’t belong in the majors.
The rap that there’s no good fastballs in Japan is garbage. MLB ave speed 92.8 npb 90.2 not a big difference. There are 5-6 players that can throw 100 in npb and a ton throw mid high 90s. It’s not MLB but a reg hitter there is def going to see a ton of high velo pitchers in there career nowadays.
Seems there’s more of them every year. Which is great for the game. But they can’t all be Ichiro. We’ve been blessed by some elite talent making that jump from Japan, and now from Korea.
Let’s dig into those stats! Can we get some detail behind your suspicions?
A couple pages of analysis would be good.
Thanks.
All Time Japanese MLB Team
C Kenji Jojima
1B None
2B Tadahito Iguchi
3B Akiniri Iwamura
SS Kazuo Matsui
LF Hideki Matsui
CF Tsuyoshi Shinjo
RF Ichiro Suzuki
DH Shohei Ohtani
SP Hideki Nomo
SP Yu Darvish
SP Hiroki Kuroda
SP Hisashi Iwakuma
SP Mashiru Tanaka
CL Kazuhiro Sasaki
RP Koji Uehara
RP Takashi Sato
RP Shigatoshi Hasagawa
RP Junichi Tazawa
Yoshitomo Tsutsugo would be 1B, if only by default.
You forgot So Taguchi.
so might not have been an all-star or hof but he has a special place in stl, without so the cards don’t even make/win the 06 ws. so was one of many of them unspoken players that helps you win a chip
Maybe slightly incomplete list but wow, nice work!
Nori aoki wasn’t that bad (285 avg career) you forgot him
You really need to put Ohtani a SP, but –
1. Its still early in his MLB career
2. I can’t even begin to decide which one of the five listed would have to be dropped. Either Kuroda or Tanaka..
Masanori Murakami in the bullpen.
HiDEO Nomo. Don’t mean to be that guy. But he was a trailblazer. A little like Lew Gehrig…easy enough mistype…I couldn’t resist.
Dont forget Hideki Okajima who pitched awesomely for my Sox.
Pekachu Sanayun C
If he signs in Japan this season, are the Reds still on the hook for the remaining money on his MLB contract? Does the NPB team get him for the prorated MLB minimum like a MLB team would?
Yes on first question. I would doubt it on the second.
surprised he didn’t do this after CIN released him.
Horrible bust thought he do a lot better than 224 and 0 hr in 2 seasons yikes
The game in Japan is more of a finesse style of play. The game here in the US is more power oriented. You need to be a physical specimen like Ohtani or Matsui to compete at a high level in MLB.
Two words for you:
Ichiro Suzuki
You are correct, I should have added World class speed to the physical skill set.
Ichiro had more than speed. He was a terrific glove man with a gun for an arm and incredible bat control. He owns the major league record for hits in a season.
@Fink
Ichiro was a bad, bad, man. He lacked pure power, but he was probably the finest hitter I’ve ever seen. Beyond that he had otherworldly instincts. He was fun to watch even when NOTHING was happening. Give him an entire US career, and I’m not sure if Pete Rose isn’t looking up at him. Ichiro defined generational talent as properly termed, much like Mike Trout
ichiro had power but refused to sell out for over getting hits and getting on base. i remember hearing an interview with one of his former coaches/manger (can’t remember who it was) said ichiro can launch bombs but it takes away from his hits, he wanted to be a table setter and there’s nothing wrong with setters imo there just as important as your big guns. imo what puts ichiro in another class is that he took the “samurai style” into bb constantly working and prefect if his class until the day his body gave out on him, and for that have the upmost respect for the man
Historically speaking Pitchers from Japan have faired much better than hitters. Sure you have Ichiro, Ohtani, Hideki Matsui, and Seiya Suzuki looks pretty good so far but then you have Akiyama, Tsutsugo, Kaz Matsui, Akinori Iwamura, Kosuke Fukudome, Tad Iguchi and others who would look good briefly and then nothing.
Not dissimilar to many of the Cuban sluggers that come here. Some like Jose Abreu and Yoenis Cespedes are as good as advertised and others (Rusney Castillo, Yasmani Tomas, Hector Olivero, Alex Guerrero) are total busts
Fukudome had a 102 OPS+ with this stat line in 3 1/2 years with the Cubs:
.262/.369/.403/.772
That’s a creditable output, and 3 1/2 years isn’t brief for a guy who debuted at age 31. He had double-digit home runs in each of his first three years in the majors.
In his first three years with Tampa Bay, Iwamura was good for 7.0 fWAR with this stat line:
.281/.354/.393/.747
That’s not nothing.
Iguchi produced 6.6 fWAR with 48 HR in four years with this stat line:
.268/.338/.401/.739
Again, not nothing.
They weren’t superstars, but they were productive ballplayers.
So Taguchi was a light hitter but a good fielder who hung around as a role player for eight years. Not bad, when the average major league career runs less than six years. He owns two World Championship rings.
@fink what team did so get his second ring from because i know he wasn’t a card in 11, and his first was in 06 with the cards. btw he is still loved in stl because without him we don’t have that ring
The 2008 Series with the Phillies.
didn’t even know he went to philly thanks for the update fink, i’m sure so helped the phills to there ws, like i said he wasn’t the best but he was a great role player and every team wanting to win a ws needs guys like him.
You forgot WAR+. Please check your stats some are incorrect
Not sure why the Reds don’t offer him a minor league deal. After all, they are paying him, so it wouldn’t cost any more money. After the trade deadline, they might need another outfielder.
They did. March 2020.
Domo arigato Shogo Akyama. Domo. Domo.
Akiyama signs with the Carp. Guess he liked his Cincinnati cap.
He doesn’t have to change hats
The wishbone C always has an allure.
Akiyama (with the possible exception of Reds fans) was the greatest victim of Aquino’s one good month in 2019…