The Athletics agreed to a one-year contract with right-hander Shintaro Fujinami, reviews ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter hyperlink). The hard-throwing 28-year-old was posted by the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Skilled Baseball again on Dec. 1. His settlement is pending a bodily, and the A’s count on to make use of him out of the rotation, Passan provides. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi reported not a lot previous to Passan that the A’s have been in ongoing talks with Fujinami’s camp and thought of a finalist to signal the righty.
Fujinami was a highschool phenom from the identical draft class as Shohei Ohtani, extremely stepping proper from highschool ball into the Tigers rotation. As a 19-year-old rookie he pitched to a 2.75 ERA in 137 2/3 innings as a starter. For a number of years, he delivered standout outcomes, pitching to a sub-3.00 ERA by means of his first 4 seasons as knowledgeable and making the Central League All-Star group in every of these first 4 campaigns.
Nevertheless, as Yakyu Cosmopolitan lays out in a video recap of Fujinami’s profession that followers will need to take a look at (YouTube hyperlink, video in English), Fujinami was left on the mound to toss 161 pitches — far and away a profession excessive — throughout his age-22 season in an outing that started with him yielding 5 runs in three innings. He’d already begun to show some worrying command points previous to that outing. The extent to which that outing might need impacted him can’t be recognized, however Fujinami started to oscillate between the Tigers’ first group (i.e. their main league membership) and their farm system starting in 2017. Additional struggles from 2017-21 brought about his inventory to fade considerably.
The 2022 season, although, led to one thing of a renaissance for Fujinami. The hard-throwing righty made 10 begins and 6 reduction appearances with the Tigers’ high group, pitching to a 3.38 ERA in 66 2/3 innings. He fanned 23.6% of his opponents and, most crucially, turned in a career-low 7.6% stroll charge. That was not solely the very best mark of Fujinami’s profession, however the first time since 2016 he’s posted a stroll charge beneath 10%.
As a 6-foot-6 righty with an upper-90s heater that has reached triple digits and a slider that’s been a plus pitch prior to now, Fujinami gives tantalizing potential. The latest struggles and repeated incapacity to find the ball with any actual consistency clearly restrict his incomes energy, however large league scouts have had Fujinami on their radars since his highschool days. The A’s make for a smart group to roll the cube on catching lightning in a bottle with Fujinami’s spectacular uncooked arsenal given their spacious dwelling park and standing as a non-contender, which is able to afford them extra persistence if the righty struggles to acclimate to North American ball early on.
With the A’s, Fujinami will step right into a beginning workers that features Cole Irvin, Paul Blackburn and a bunch of fellow unproven choices. Oakland signed journeyman right-hander Drew Rucinski to a one-year, $3M deal on the heels of a terrific run within the Korea Baseball Group, in order that pair appears more likely to slot in behind Irvin and Blackburn. Candidates for the fifth spot on the workers will embrace out-of-options righty James Kaprielian and prospects Ken Waldichuk, Kyle Muller, JP Sears and Adrian Martinez. It’s not less than doable the A’s will use a six-man group early within the season, although their actual plans will likely be hashed out each by well being and efficiency of the group throughout spring coaching.
The NPB/MLB posting system permits a posted participant to barter with all 30 MLB golf equipment; the participant’s former group is subsequently entitled to a posting/launch charge that’s equal to twenty% of the primary $25M on a contract, 17.5% of the following $25M and 15% of any {dollars} thereafter. Provided that it’s a one-year deal, the A’s will merely be on the hook for a launch charge that’s 20% of no matter quantity is assured to Fujinami. That charge will likely be paid to the group and is separate from the worth of the contract paid to Fujinami himself.
