Right-hander Takahiro Norimoto of the Rakuten Eagles in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball is planning to exercise his international free agent rights and gauge interest from both MLB and NPB teams this winter, per a report from Yahoo Japan (hat tip to Yakyu Cosmopolitan). He’s hired the Wasserman agency to represent him in talks with major league teams, per the report. The now-34-year-old righty moved to the bullpen in 2024 after a lengthy and successful run as a starting pitcher. He’s spent the past two seasons as the Eagles’ closer.
Norimoto is older than most players making the transition from NPB to MLB. He’ll turn 35 in December. The right-hander is coming off a nice year with the Eagles, having pitched to a 3.02 ERA with 16 saves, four holds and only two blown saves. His 17.2% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate don’t exactly stand out, though Norimoto has still shown the ability to run his heater up in the 97 mph range since moving to the bullpen last season. He kept nearly 50% of his opponents’ batted balls on the ground this past season as well.
Norimoto hasn’t had issues missing bats in the past. He led NPB in strikeouts for five straight years, from 2014-18, while working out of the Eagles’ rotation. He’s pitched 1838 career innings in NPB and recorded a 3.12 ERA while winning 120 games, saving another 48 and punching out nearly 24% of his opponents (against a 6.3% walk rate).
Due to the fact that Norimoto is at least 25 and has at least six full seasons of professional experience, he’s exempt from Major League Baseball’s international bonus pool structure. The fact that he has more than nine seasons of service in NPB means he is also exempt from the posting system. If he indeed exercises those international free agent rights, he’d be free to sign with any club on a big league or minor league deal — provided MLB teams have sufficient interest in the former Pacific League Rookie of the Year and six-time NPB All-Star.
While we don’t see too many players jump to MLB in their mid-30s, Orioles right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano did just that in 2025. This past year was Sugano’s rookie season in MLB and came in his own age-35 campaign. Sugano, of course, did so as a starter. Former Red Sox righty Hirokazu Sawamura and former D-backs/Mariners righty Yoshihisa Hirano are more recent examples of relievers making relatively successful moves to MLB in their mid-30s; the former signed with Boston ahead of his age-33 season in 2022, while the latter signed with Arizona ahead of the 2018 campaign, his age-34 season.
Big league clubs are always on the lookout for affordable bullpen help, so there could still be interest in Norimoto even if he’s not as coveted at 35 as he might’ve been in his physical peak. As a rotation-mate of former Yankees right-hander Masahiro Tanaka for Tanaka’s first three seasons back in Japan after his run in the Bronx, Norimoto has surely picked the former MLB All-Star’s brain about moving to the majors in the past. It’s not entirely certain he’ll be pitching in North America next year, but he’s an interesting wild card entrant into the offseason bullpen market.
He could be another Sugano. I think he’d get interest from a couple MLB teams if he decides to come over.
It seems more likely that he will be another Norimoto.
I meant similar age, somewhat similar profile. Didn’t mean to insult the guy.
I get it. We all like our comps. But in the end every player is his own story.
“Norimoto hasn’t had issues missing bats in the past.”
It’s been a while, though. Career K/9 is 8.8 but the last three years it’s 6.4, 7.3, 6.9. Career high in BB/9 this past year at 3.2 as well. So an aging, soft-tossing closer who doesn’t strike anyone out.
There was very limited interest in Shinnosuke Ogasawara last year and he has the age advantage and was still a starter in Japan. Interest for Norimoto might actually be nil. His ERA of 3.02 is pretty close to the league-wide ERA of 3.04 this past season and his 6.9 K/9 is below the league-wide number of 7.4.
I don’t see it mentioned in the article (apologies if I am missing it) but Rakuten’s closer just prior to Norimoto was Yuki Matsui. Matsui’s numbers were far better than Norimoto’s plus he is five years younger than Norimoto and came to MLB two years ago. Matsui received solid interest (5/$28 million) but he hasn’t exactly distinguished himself in MLB. Just solid at best. I can’t imagine Norimoto gets a lot of offers.
97 MPH isn’t exactly soft tossing
I don’t have Norimoto’s average fastball handy, but he still tops out at 97-98 mph, soi t’s fair to assume the average is in the 94-96 mph range.
“Soft tossing” doesn’t really apply to him the same it would to Ogasawara or Matsui. Ogasawara was sitting under 89 in Triple-A with the Nats this season. Matsui has sat 92 mph in two seasons with the Padres.
I don’t think Norimoto will get a Matsui-style deal based on his age and recent strikeout rates, but the idea that he could get a modest one- or two-year contract isn’t far-fetched. That’s what Sawamura and Hirano received when coming over from NPB in their mid-30s.
Japanese pitchers often have different deliveries. Even a mediocre Japanese pitcher could fool US hitters for a year.
Very true, Joe, and I hope I’m wrong!
lmao, sorry about the “soft-tossing” comment but 6.9 K/9 is not good and everything else I said stands. He’ll be seven years older than Matsui was when he came over and he has worse (and declining) numbers across the board. I would be surprised if he got a Major League deal. Every team has 94-96 mph guys in their minor league system already and they cost almost nothing.
I’d be happy to be wrong, though. I really enjoy the NPB crossover players, whether it be Japanese players coming to MLB or international players going to Japan.
Granted Koji was a special case, but he came over as a 34 year old and carved out a nice little career for himself.
He’ll get a 3-5M$ per offer from someone. Probably 3 years or less.
It’s been a minute, loved that guy
As an Oriole fan that watched the Sugano experiment,.there something in the between start work that I have to say that I liked about seasoned Japanese pitcher. I wholly agree that each pitcher is different but a seasoned Japanese pitcher with a long history of starter success in the Nippon League coming over to see how his later career stuff matches up against the hyper athletic MLB offenses… there are obvious similarities too.
The O’s need a set up guy (and closer but I don’t think you go handing the keys to the 9th to someone with no MLB experience without first seeing how hitters try to attack him). $5-6MM on a 1 yr deal would be “PART of the balanced breakfast” that Baltimore needs to be in the mix in 2026.
Maybe talk above of Koji has me all aflutter with Orioles nostalgia. But give it a rip. Just money.
He’s the type of guy the Angels should target. If he’s good that’s found value and a possible trade chip. If he’s mediocre or worse there’s no real harm done.