The Nationals announced this morning that they’ve recalled left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara. Ryan Loutos was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Ogasawara, who is slated to make his MLB debut when he starts against the Red Sox later today, on the active roster. Ogasawara’s impending debut was first reported by the Japanese outlet Sponichi Annex.
Ogasawara, 27, signed a two-year deal worth $3.5MM during the offseason. He did not make the club’s starting rotation out of Spring Training and was optioned to the minor leagues, where he made just three starts before being sidelined by an oblique injury. Ogasawara spent two months on the shelf before beginning a rehab assignment in rookie ball last month. Since then, he’s advanced to the High-A level where he struck out five in four innings of work while surrendering two runs. Despite his most recent start coming in the lower minors, the Nationals clearly feel he’s ready to step into the club’s rotation to help fill in for the injured Trevor Williams, who was sidelined by an elbow sprain on Friday.
Prior to joining the Nationals, Ogasawara had spent nine seasons pitching for Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chunichi Dragons. His rookie season as an 18-year-old in 2016 was impressive as he posted a 3.36 ERA across 15 starts in Japan’s Central League, but he struggled at the highest level of NPB play over the next few seasons. He started to turn things back around in 2021, however, and from then on he posted ERAs of 3.64, 2.72, 3.59, and 3.12 across his final four years in NPB.
Impressive as that run prevention in recent years may be, there are some concerns. Ogasawara has struck out just 18.9% of batters faced during his time in NPB, and that’s dropped even lower in recent years as he posted a strikeout rate of just 13.6% for the Dragons last season. Among qualified starters this year in MLB, Ogasawara’s career figure in NPB would place him in the bottom 20 in terms of strikeout rate while his 2024 figure would place him second from the bottom ahead of only Padres righty Randy Vasquez. Vasquez has a 3.79 ERA this year in 18 starts despite shoddy peripherals, so it’s certainly not impossible to find success at the big league level with a low strikeout rate. With that said, it’s clearly an uphill battle to be a quality big league starter with that lack of strikeout stuff. The lefty’s 3.6% walk rate in 2024 should help matters, though, and it’s at least worth nothing that Ogasawara has actually struck out 24% of his opponents in the minor leagues this year.
Making room for Ogasawara on the active roster is Loutos, who was plucked off waivers from the Dodgers earlier this year but has surrendered ten runs (eight earned) in 7 1/3 innings of work for the Nationals across eight appearances where he’s walked (eight) more batters than he’s struck out (six). Loutos will return to Triple-A and continue serving as an optionable depth piece for the Nationals to call on when they need an extra arm for the bullpen.
How can someone get recalled if they have never been called up?
I can’t imagine a minor league manager telling a player who’s never been to the majors, “Congrats. You’re getting recalled.”
He’s a veteran of nine years in the NPB. He is not a rookie in professional terms but he is new to playing in MLB. So “recalled” rather than called up. Most NPB-to-MLB signings don’t start playing here in the minors.
You really need to stop embarrassing yourself and learn proper baseball terminology. Recalled is the appropriate term given his status. Really sad you are so desperate for attention you chose to attack this writer and now look foolish.
Calm yourself down
If the person was in the majors then sent down then I wouldn’t question it. Plus I can find other articles where it mentioned “called up” “promoted” or “debut”
Don’t make a fool of yourself nephew..
He was with the nats at spring training and he’s on the 40 man. So in technical terms it is a recall because they sent him down from the big league team.
High A to majors is going to be a huge difference of talent he’s going to have to face
Especially Boston’s RH bats that are tearing up lefties, Romy my homie and Refsnyder
108.00 ERA so far. Looks pretty good.
Down to 13.50, a 94.50 run improvement from earlier.
The 2025 World Series Champion Red Sox are rounding into shape.