Right-hander Shintaro Fujinami is planning to play in the Puerto Rican Winter League this offseason as he looks to demonstrate his health for interested clubs, he revealed in an interview with Japanese news outlet Sponichi. He hopes to continue playing in the United States for the 2025 season.
Fujinami’s one-year, $3.35MM deal with the Mets for the 2024 season was derailed by injuries. The hard-throwing 30-year-old (31 in April) was expected to have a place in New York’s bullpen but landed on the injured list in spring training due to shoulder troubles and never wound up pitching in the majors. He pitched four scoreless rehab innings between Rookie ball, Class-A and Double-A but was hit hard in 32 frames with the Mets’ Triple-A club. In those 32 frames, he yielded a 6.68 ERA and walked just over 22% of his opponents. Fujinami still sat at a hearty 97.3 mph with his heater and fanned 25.7% of his opponents, but that velocity was down from the prior season and his command was a disaster even relative to his own shaky standards.
Many Mets fans raised an eyebrow at the time of the Fujinami signing. A big league deal for a reliever coming off a combined 7.18 ERA in 79 innings between the A’s and Orioles in 2023 indeed looked curious absent more context. But that ghastly earned run average was skewed by a woeful run of four starts with the A’s to begin his big league career. Fujinami pitched just 15 innings in Oakland’s rotation but yielded 24 runs on 19 hits and 12 walks. He was dropped to the bullpen and, after a rough start in that role as well, found his groove.
Over his final 51 1/3 innings of the 2023 campaign, Fujinami posted a far more palatable 4.21 ERA. That’s still hardly an eye-catching mark, but that earned run average was accompanied by a 25.5% strikeout rate and 9.9% walk rate — vast improvements from his earlier work. He also averaged a blazing 99.2 mph on his heater during that stretch and coupled that with a sharp 12.7% swinging-strike rate. Fujinami was showing an ability to miss bats both off the plate and in the zone and, at times, looking flat-out dominant (as can be seen in GIF form, courtesy of the indispensable Rob Friedman). A modest one-year deal for a then 29-year-old righty who was once a top pick and prospect alongside Shohei Ohtani in NPB seemed perfectly sensible, particularly for a deep-pocketed club like the Mets.
This time around, a big league deal seems less likely (though not impossible, depending how he looks in Puerto Rico). He’ll be showcasing his health in hopes of generating interest among big league clubs. If he looks healthy and regains some the roughly two miles per hour he lost off his heater in the wake of that shoulder injury with the Mets, he could land an invite to spring training next year and compete for a job in a big league bullpen. MLB clubs are constantly drawn to power arms of this nature, so a non-guaranteed deal should be there if Fujinami is healthy and shows some semblance of improved command.
Mets never gave him a chance. He would have easily been our best reliever
I get you’re joking but the bullpen saved the team early in the year when the starters didn’t go more than 5 innings. Also funny thing to say about a team a few games from the World Series lol
He wasn’t joking. He literally believes that.
@please disperse I am not joking. I’ve been saying this the whole year. Lefties who throw 100 mph don’t just grow on trees. There is no world where a guy like Huascar Brazoban or even earlier in the year relievers like Houser are better than Fujinami. One of the most underated players in the game
Fuji is a righty, not a lefty.
I don’t think he would’ve been a savior but I do think it would be worth bringing him back to the Mets org to see if he’s better when healthy.
Imagine someone who is never wrong and has done extensive research and never misses a game doesnt know right from left.
Also remember hearing Lindor was horrible and not even a top shortstop in the NL east let alone major league and absolutely horrible in the clutch.
The only way Fuji would have gotten into majors is if he bought a ticket and sat in the stands or i guess they could have made him one of the concession guy and tried throwing packs of cracker jacks to people. Probably would still miss him with his aim.
Let’s starts a Go Fund Me for LFGMets so he can get a pair of eye glasses. Forget about knowing baseball ( which he does not, but don’t try to argue with him about it) but he can’t even see the Picture that goes with the story which shows Fuji-no-idea throwing righthanded.
LFGM, you try to stir things up but you are an embarrassment to yourself. And this time you have outdone yourself.
That’s just completely not true, and you know that.
You know, the Mets could win the WS and you’d comment on here how they’re doing everything incorrectly and would do better if they just took your advice..
You’re clearly a passionate Mets fan, but considering where they are right now, I’m guessing that Stearns and Co. know more than you about talent evaluation. Looking at his AAA stats suggests why he was never given a chance on a big league roster this year.
He most certainly is not a Mets fan. Almost every single comment that he makes disparages whatever the Mets have done. He is nothing but a shi!stirrer
Hey, where are all those guys that were bashing Stearns and calling for his firing during the offseason?
I imagine a lot of them will get selective amnesia about their posts.
He’ll get a sympathy invite to someone’s Spring Training to improve that team’s relations with Japan. Such a common and transparent practice that should be taken up when the CBA expires.
Why would that be something that needs to come up in union negotiations? It’s as common as the college basketball team that hires a relative right before a major recruit is eligible for college in basketball or football. As long as there’s no victim, there’s nothing really actionable.
Honestly, every team in every season signs a handful of guys as AAA filler/lottery ticket types. How do you differentiate between a lottery ticket guy and a signing to help convince an FA to pick your team? No Japanese free agents allowed to be signed when someone has been posted?
His arm will draw interest but I doubt anyone reigns in the command to make him worthwhile. Tampa Bay would be the most interesting landing spot.
Cleveland and Seattle are also pitching clinics, those are other good spots for him.
Seattle, yes. He wouldn’t have a chance to crack CLE’s pen & they develop their own guys through their system for the most part. Definitely top tier at what they do though.
Rays should pick him up
If the Rays pick him up before Peter Bendix, we know the story already…50 Saves next year.
Ganbatte, Fuji-san!
Real life Nuke LaLoosh
Nuke LaLoosh, with subtitle.
This article is slightly wrong. He signed with Gigantes as a starting pitcher, which means that he is trying to showcase to MLB teams that he is a starter. He is not aiming for the bullpen in MLB anymore.
He has the stuff to be a closer, but he simply does not have the attitude to succeed as a bullpen arm. He needs to throw a lot of pitches in order to find his control and that is simply not possible when it is expected that you get three easy outs without much fanfare. As a starter, you get much more time to pitch yourself out of a situation. As a reliever, you will get pulled if you walk the first few batters.
His control issues might look severe, but I wonder whether it is really that bad (anymore). I saw him throw quite a few good multi-innings in August with Syracuse. Yes, he still throws balls against the backboard, but I remember Ohtani at the WBC as a closer doing the same against Trout. It happens, starting pitchers need time to find their feel for the strikezone. So throwing a few wild pitches is not always an indication of unrepairable bad control/command – it could also mean that you are not warmed up enough.
Can Niebla and Padres biomechanics lab fix him? At least to the point where its 25.4% SO he had with Baltimore and just the 12.2% BB like Scott put up? not many LHP that throw triple digits.
He would be VERY cheap if they can. Like Estrada was.
And fujinami is not left handed!
He’s a righty.
Thanks. I read a comment above that he was a lefty and ran with that instead of looking it up.
Fujinami. Can’t spell fun without him.
A lot of things you can spell with that name.
Come to think of it, what ever happened to Fukudome?
Fukudome and Fukuduke is what most of America says when 2 of the most despised teams take the field or court, unless like Phil Donahue, you went to one of those schools and remind people of that every waking moment
huh?