Lions announce signing of Reed Garrett

The Saitama Seibu Lions announced on Tuesday that they added another foreign pitcher in Reed Garrett. He is the third foreign signing by the Lions for this offseason.

Garrett, 26, was a Rule 5 draft pick of the Detroit Tigers in the winter of 2018. He made the opening day roster and made his MLB debut on March 29. With the Tigers, he recorded an 8.22 ERA in 13 games while mostly taking mop up duties.

The Tigers would send him back to the Texas Rangers on May 20 per Rule 5 draft rules and he spent the rest of 2019 with the Nashville Sounds (AAA). In 34 games with Nashville, he recorded a 1-3 record with a 4.91 ERA in 40.1 innings of work. 

Scouting reports say that Garrett is a hard thrower who lacks command. He can also throw a slider, split-fingered fastball and changeup. He had promise in AAA which led to his Rule 5 selection, but it all went South in 2019 when he was on the MLB roster.

With Cory Spangenberg and Sean Nolin already signed, Garrett becomes another relief option for the Lions with hopes to find someone to take 7th or 8th inning duties.

His best case scenario is if he is paired with Katsunori Hirai as a setup option to take the workload off the other pitchers. He can top out at 97 mph (156 kph), but his control issues were clear once he faced major league hitters and couldn't keep his spot.

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Numbers assigned: 

Lots of Seibu Lions jerseys numbers were assigned or changed with the rookies and foreign imports arriving.  Here are the updates:

Hotaka Yamakawa: 33 to 3

Tetsu Miyagawa: 15

Shota Hayama: 20

Hiroki Inoue: 41

Ryuya Ogawa: 44 to 29

Kaito Yoza: 44

Koki Matsuoka: 47

Shunta Nakatsuka: 22 to 50

Towa Uema: 64

Makoto Aiuchi: 41 to 66

Toshihiro Idei: 120

Masatoshi Okada: 37 to 2

Sena Yuge: 37

Masato Saito: 78

Ryota Kawano: 56

Yuji Kaneko: 8 to 7

Daisuke Togawa: 71 to 65

Junichiro Kishi: 68

Sean Nolin: 49

Cory Spangenberg: 22

Reed Garrett: 33

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