2:20PM: Feinsand reports that Takahashi had offers from three Major League clubs. 7 News Boston’s Ari Alexander heard during the Winter Meetings that the Astros were interested in Takahashi, but it isn’t known if Houston was one of the teams who made the righty a formal offer.
1:30PM: Kona Takahashi’s 45-day posting window for finding a contract with MLB teams closes tomorrow, but The Athletic’s Will Sammon reports that the right-hander will instead return to Japan and the Seibu Lions.
There wasn’t much buzz about Takahashi’s bid to join a big league team, and reports began to emerge a few days ago that returning to Nippon Professional Baseball was a distinct possibility for the 28-year-old. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand and Brian Murphy reported that Takahashi received just one offer from a Major League team, and it apparently wasn’t enticing enough for the righty to make the jump.
Takahashi doesn’t yet qualify for full international free agency. Feinsand and Murphy suggested that he could pursue a multi-year deal with the Lions that includes an opt-out clause next winter, so Takahashi could freely pursue another contract with a Major League team. Sammon writes that Takahashi and the Lions are indeed discussing such a contract — though the Lions still control Takahashi’s rights, the club was already willing to post him this offseason, so a longer-term deal with opt-outs somewhat formalizes the situation. It does mean that the Lions wouldn’t be able to receive a posting fee, which would’ve been 20% of any contract worth $25MM of less in guaranteed money.
The general expectation was that Takahashi’s foray into the posting system was going to result in a low-level guarantee at best, or perhaps even a contract without any guaranteed money. Takahashi has a solid 3.39 ERA over 1199 career innings with the Lions, and achieved success by inducing grounders at roughly a 50 percent rate and limiting walks. The big red flag for MLB scouts was undoubtedly Takahashi’s lackluster 17.17% career strikeout rate.
It might take a particularly strong 2026 NPB season for Takahashi to elevate his stock in the eyes of big league scouts, but he’ll still be relatively young (turning 30 in February 2027) in advance of what would be his first MLB campaign. With another year of good results and eating innings, Takahashi might draw more attention as a back-end rotation arm or perhaps as a multi-inning reliever next winter, should he end up opting out of his next contract.
Did not see that coming. Guessing he didn’t get the deal he wanted.
Guess they thought he was another Kohei Arihara or Shintaro Fujinami.
Worse: they thought he was worse than Shinnosuke Ogasawara and Naoyuki Uwasawa despite having better velocity than Arihara.
This wasn’t the deal he was looking for.
He wasn’t ready imo
Read the room. Teams are t handing out lengthy contracts this offseason. Impending lockout potential.
This off-season is the same as the last three or four off-season‘s. They have all played out pretty much the same way.
Teams are just getting smarter and only throwing lengthy contracts at elite young talent. Doesn’t mean a lockout is guarantee.
Kyle Tucker will get a massive long term deal from someone. If he doesn’t, maybe I’ll join you on the side of suspecting a lockout.
Off season lockout by the owners will definitely happen. Will it impact the regular season? That’s the question.
A’s spending revenue sharing money anyways and mlb American players aren’t accepting their offers it seems . I would’ve taken a shot since they desperately need pitching
Considering how bad his strikeout rates are in the NPB, he would have been just as bad or worse than Drew Rucinski was for the A’s. I know they’re struggling to add players, but I think not signing him was the right move.
Better than how Rucinski turned out, but not by a lot. Rucinski was done in by a freak spinal condition
They may have taken a shot and he may have turned it down. The “Sacramento” A’s would be one of the worst places for a pitcher to come over for a year or two to prove himself. Possibly even worse than pitching in Coors Field. At least Coors is a major league ball park with major league facilities, even if you do get rocked.
Ironically the ballpark in Oakland was exactly the type of ballpark for a guy on a prove it deal.
Doesn’t surprise me. The MLB is a tougher league and, with the NPB in something of a deadball era, his numbers don’t jump off the page. I don’t think he’d be a high-level starter over here and it seems the offers reflected that.
Nothing in his stat line suggests even a remote chance of success in MLB. Since he was not a true free agent teams couldn’t even offer him a minor league contract. He can always try his luck next winter when there is no posting fee attached to him
Not surprising considering the lack of traction he garnered and his subpar production his last few seasons in the NPB.
Astros were interested in him? Um, oh. I hope it was a minor league offer, well. No difference now.
Guess he wasnt interested in playing for the weird as Minnesota Twins. Ah well, another season at home with the Lion
With all the garbage pitching in MLB it’s surprising he didn’t latch on with any team in any role, at very least see how he plays. But we don’t know what his camp wanted or his demands.
I think MLB is way too focused on the strike out. Greg Maddox is one of the greatest pitchers of all time. Over 5000 innings pitched, about 3300 strikeouts. Strikeouts are on the rise, and so are Tommy John surgeries.