The Saitama Seibu Lions made a free agent signing on Wednesday when they announced they signed RHP Zach Neal. He will make about ¥71.5 million in 2019.
Neal, 30, has been in the minor leagues for majority of his baseball career. Most recently, he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers organization in 2018 as well as a brief stint with the Cincinnati Reds organization. With the OKC Dodgers AAA affiliate, he went 3-2 with a 4.40 ERA in 61.1 innings of work. He appeared in one September outing for 2018.
From 2013-2017, he was with the Oakland A's organization and made a total of 30 appearances at the major league level with them.
He has racked more than 1,000 innings of minor league baseball in his career and was originally a 17th round draft pick of the Florida Marlins in 2010 and went to the University of Oklahoma.
Neal will compete for a rotation spot as Hisanobu "Nabe-Q" Watanabe liked his control, thinking he can help the pitching staff right away. With plenty of uncertainty with the Lions rotation in 2019, he will get his shot to play at the ichi-gun level.
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Other news:
-The Lions reached an agreement with Fabio Castillo and Chun-Lin Kuo to bring them back for 2019. Castillo will also compete for a rotation spot with Kuo and the aforementioned Neal.
-Seiji Kawagoe will switch from jersey number 26 to 72 and be an outfielder. Kona Takahashi will wear No. 13, last worn by Fumiya Nishiguchi.
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