Far East Free Agents In Demand To MLB Teams
The pipeline of baseball talent from Japan to the United States has not gone completely dry, but the flow seems to have subsided this offseason, as Major League clubs prepare for the 2009 campaign.
None of the big-name players that figure to be on Japan’s World Baseball Classic team next March are expected to be “posted” by their respective clubs. And, according to media members who cover Japanese baseball, only five players — including four pitchers — have expressed a desire to test the free-agent market and play in the Major Leagues next season.
It is unusual that so few Japan-born players are available. There currently are eight pitchers and six position players on MLB rosters, but getting to 15 in ‘09 could be a challenge.
You won’t find a Daisuke Matsuzaka-type hurler on a short list of pitchers that could be available via free agency. And there isn’t a Kosuke Fukudome ready to fill an outfield spot.
“I think these things run in cycles,” one Pacific Rim scout said, “and there just aren’t the high-profile players like there were the last couple of years with Matsuzaka and Fukudome. It’s a little low and will be about the same next year.”
As an indication of just how shallow the pool from Japan is this year, 22-year-old right-hander Junichi Tazawa is regarded as the prize catch, and it appears that he will sign with the Boston Red Sox early next week.
Right-hander Kenshin Kawakami, 33, had a 9-5 record and 2.30 ERA for the Chunichi Dragons last season and conceivably could compete as a fourth or fifth starter on a Major League staff, scouts have reported.
Another seasoned pitcher, right-hander Koji Uehara of the Central League Yomiuri Giants, has experience as a starter — winning the equivalent of two Cy Young Awards in Japan. He also holds the club record with 32 saves, established two years ago. Uehara reportedly has had a long-time desire to play in the Major Leagues and was offered a deal by the Angels prior to the 1998 season. But he rejected it because the offer didn’t include an assurance that he would pitch at the big league level.
Injuries the past couple of seasons, however, have taken a toll on Uehara. His fastball, once regularly thrown in the low- to mid-90s, is now in the mid-80s range, but he does have a quality splitter.
The scouting report on Uehara and Kawakami are extensive. Not so with Tazawa.
Unlike other Japan-born players currently playing in the Major Leagues — a list that includes position players Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Kenji Johjima, Akinori Iwamura and Fukudome, and pitchers Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima and Hiroki Kuroda — Tazawa did not play professionally in Japan before pursing his Major League ambitions.
But that didn’t prevent the Red Sox, Seattle Mariners, Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers and Atlanta Braves from pursuing the young pitcher who spent the 2008 season with the Nippon Oil of the Japan Industrial League — open only to amateur players. After the season, Tazawa asked the Japanese pro teams not to draft him so he could go directly to the Major Leagues.
Well, perhaps not quite immediately to the big leagues.
Without any pro experience, Tazawa probably will spend most — if not all — of the 2009 season in the Minor Leagues, although all four teams reportedly offered Tazawa Major League contracts which ranged, according to Nikkan Sports, from three years, $3 million from the Red Sox and Mariners, to a four-year, $7 million proposal from the Rangers.
The Red Sox already have a quality starting rotation, including Matsuzaka, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and Tim Wakefield, along with less-experienced but highly regarded right-handers Clay Buchholz and Justin Masterson, on their staff.
Meanwhile, exactly who might be available from South Korea is unclear, but the Pacific Rim scout, who asked not to be named for competitive reasons, said fewer than eight players have been declared free agents and none of them are talented enough to warrant strong consideration from MLB organizations.
The rush to find baseball gold in the Land of the Rising Sun has flourished ever since the Seattle Mariners submitted a $13.1 million posting fee to the Orix Blue Wave for the rights to negotiate with Ichiro prior to the 2001 season. Ichiro signed a three-year contract.
Ichiro, a seven-time Pacific League batting champion, opened the door to Japan-born position players by becoming the first of 10 Japan-born position players to have played in the Major Leagues, a transition that not too long ago was considered an impossible mission.
He was an instant hit, becoming just the second player in MLB history to be selected as the Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year in the same season, and has accumulated at least 200 hits in each of his eight seasons with Seattle.
But this season isn’t strong for position players, either. The only player given much chance of playing in the Major Leagues next season is Yokohama BayStars catcher Ryoji Aikawa, a reserve on Team Japan’s inaugural World Baseball Classic championship team in 2006. He is known more for his defense than offense and there hasn’t been a lot of interest shown from MLB clubs.
But as the cycle continues, perhaps a year or two down the road, another gold rush will come from Japan.
- Tom Singer, MLB.com
