The Red Sox have released right-hander Hirokazu Sawamura, per Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe. Sawamura asked for his release to pursue other opportunities, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive.
Sawamura, 34, pitched in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball for ten years before crossing the Pacific. He signed a two-year deal with the Red Sox prior to the 2021 season and had a solid debut that season. He threw 53 innings with a 3.06 ERA, 26.2% strikeout rate and 51.8% ground ball rate, though a very worrisome 13.7% walk rate.
His performance took a bit of a downward turn here in 2022, however, with his ERA jumping up to 3.73 and his strikeout rate dropping to 18.1%. He was designated for assignment in August, later clearing waivers and being outrighted to Triple-A.
Sawamura’s contract guaranteed him $3MM with a $1.2MM salary both last year and this year, as well as a $600K buyout on a club option for 2023. That club option came with $3MM base but a series of escalators based on the number of appearances Sawamura made. If the club declined their option, Sawamura would then have a player option that also had a value tied to appearances. He had already pitched enough to get the player option up to $1.9MM and would have made it an even $2MM with one more game before he was cut from the roster.
When Sawamura was outrighted, it was reported that the option was still active. However, Sawamura will collect the $1MM buyout and head to free agency instead. He only made a single appearance in Triple-A between the outright and today’s release.
The Eduard Bazardo era has begun in Boston.
Free passes and his inability to strike guys out doomed him. He was a stud to some extent last season.
Someone will pick him up
Sawamura pitched great in low leverage situations, but allowed a lot of inherited runners to score in high leverage games appearances. He is neither good enough nor inexpensive enough to retain for 2023.
Orioles have a pretty successful pitching program, it finally showed results.
Maybe the Orioles could pick up Sawamura for a song now
I think there’s a lot left here in the majors for him. Wonder if he wanted out early to get back home and start WBC training? Hopefully he’s not going back permanently.
He’s perfect for a really bad team. But he’ll have to sign for less than what he robbed the Sox of…. Marlins come to mind.
“Robbed the RS”? 6-2 with a 3.39 for slightly higher than minimum wage?
Only thing dumber than using W-L to rate a starting pitcher is using W-L to rate a relief pitcher.
This one was obvious… He simply didn’t fit in with most of the pitching staff. That sub 4.00 ERA was his obvious ticket out of town.