Following last night’s game against the A’s, the Rangers announced that Kohei Arihara would get the ball for the second contest of the series this evening. It’ll be the 30-year-old’s first big league appearance of the season, as he’s spent the entire season with Triple-A Round Rock after being outrighted off the 40-man roster last September. The Rangers 40-man is currently full, so they’ll need to make a corresponding move this afternoon to formally select Arihara’s contract. Longtime Texas beat reporter Jeff Wilson first suggested that he could be on the radar for a call-up.
A longtime member of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan, Arihara made the jump to MLB over the 2020-21 offseason. The right-hander was made available by the Fighters via the posting process, and he ultimately signed a two-year, $6.2MM contract. Texas also paid a $1.24MM posting fee to the Fighters, pushing their total investment to around $7.5MM.
Arihara never threw especially hard or missed many bats in Japan, but he was a polished strike-thrower who pitched to a 3.74 ERA over six NPB seasons. Texas hoped that control could allow him to flourish as a back-of-the-rotation arm in the big leagues, but that hasn’t been the case thus far. Arihara made ten big league starts last season, allowing a 6.64 ERA over 40 2/3 innings while struggling mightily with the home run ball (2.43 HR/9). He required shoulder surgery that May and spent nearly four months rehabbing before returning in September. After three more starts, he was run through waivers and assigned to Triple-A.
Through 18 appearances (14 starts) with Round Rock in 2022, Arihara has a 4.88 ERA in 72 innings. His 20.4% strikeout rate is a bit below-average, but he’s demonstrating his customary excellent control (5.8% walk percentage). More importantly, he’s gotten his home run rate to a more manageable level than it was during his first MLB stint, largely because he’s inducing grounders on over half the batted balls against him. Arihara’s season line still isn’t eye-catching, but he’s allowed three or fewer earned runs in each of his past five starts and will get a shot to try to carry that over against big league hitters.
Arihara’s contract wraps up at the end of the season, so the final couple months are particularly important for him personally. Capturing a rotation spot and performing serviceably over the next seven weeks would seem to be a prerequisite if he hopes to land a major league contract this winter. The Rangers have already bumped Taylor Hearn to a relief role after a rough run in the rotation, but they’re without Jon Gray due to an oblique strain and have given 18 starts to Glenn Otto without much consistent success. There’s enough uncertainty Arihara could have a path to picking up a handful of starts down the stretch.
Who?
A Major League Baseball pitcher named Kohei Arihara. What’s your name so I can look you up on Baseball Reference. “Who” indeed…
Wow Fred loose control sometimes?
“Loose” control of a dictionary?
Sorry I can’t spell.
Giving up 3 runs doesn’t say a lot. How many, or few innings they were allowed in says a whole lot more. 3 runs in 4 or 5 innings is not impressive at all.
Why are the Rangers bringing up a AA player?
He is in AAA at Round Rock.
Yes, but look at his numbers in AAA. Those are not AAA stats. Those are AA player stats in AAA.
He got called up because he can pitch?
Because he can pitch in the big league?
They’re prolly bringing him up in hopes he pitches well and gets traded
He is literally the only one available. Someone has to pitch and Keuchel and winn have both pitched within the last three days. That leaves Allard who has been awful when up, or Alexy who is primarily a reliever these days or you go to AA for LIeter, Weems, or White, none of whom are anywhere close to ready. So might as well see if ARihara has anything to give.
Uh no, he is on an expiring contract and the trade deadline has passed. Does anyone actually read the articles in their entirety or just post comments randomly?
The contract doesn’t matter, there is simply no one else this round in the rotation to pitch tonight. If he does poorly then they can arrange AAA rotation to have
Kuechel or Winn ready for the next turn in the Ranger rotation. BTW I am not an Arihara fan just looking at the reality of the situation..
No, trade deadline has passed and he is on an expiring contract.
No, trade deadline has passed and he is on an expiring contract
Daniels signing Arihara to that contract was stupid. Him having no choice but to bring him back now is damning.
Ham is an extremely versatile meat. You can pretty much have it at any meal and no one will think differently of you. There may even be a ham dessert out there but I don’t know any 80 year olds to call and ask them.
God are yall dumb. Mystifyingly (not a word but it suits) dumb.
And I read marlinsfanbase retype (not copy and paste) about Fernando Sr. 25 times and didn’t comment on that. I had to comment on this to say….yall dumb as bricks
Arihara will be DFAed in about 45min after the game is over tonight.
You can BANK on that.
There must be some contractual item here that they must do this or out of courtesy, but he will be DF’A for sure.
Probably,but who is gonna be the sacrificial lamb, dfa to get him on 40
Completely forgot about him. The last few players coming from Japan not named Shohei Ohtani or Seiya Suzuki have been mostly forgettable