Tsutsugo enters a great situation in Tampa Bay

This week, Yoshitomo Tsutsugo signed with the Tampa Bay Rays to a 2-year, $12 million deal with a posting fee of $2.4 going back to the Yokohama DeNA Baystars.

While there is plenty of skepticism and question marks on whether his game translates to MLB, the former Yokohama High School star has the best chance to succeed in Florida.

As reported by Jim Allen, Joel Wolfe, Tsutsugo's agent, said Tsutsugo was not seeking the highest bidder among the teams since being posted. Recently, he was working out in Los Angeles, which included a facility at UCLA and another owned by Nolan Arenado.

Tampa's selling point was aggressive among the bunch when team representatives met him in Southern California after the winter meetings in San Diego.

"We’re really excited,'' Rays GM Erik Neander said. "We have closely followed Yoshi over the last several years in anticipation of a moment like this being in his future. His immense on-field talent, the impact he’s made, the results, the offensive production in a league as increasingly talented as the NPB (as the Japan league is known), is something that initially caught our attention and led to our pursuit of Yoshi.

"But what ultimately led to this agreement and the commitment that we’ve made is what we learned about Yoshi the person. And Yoshi is someone that by all accounts loves baseball, has an exceptional work ethic, he’s a natural leader. We’ve seen that. And he’s a wonderful teammate to players of all types of backgrounds. As much as we’re about winning here, and that’s the goal, our culture is really important to us. What Yoshi will bring to our group only strengthens the values in our clubhouse that are most important.

"And certainly we’re hopeful and confident he’s going to help us to win a few games as well.''

The Rays have been a revolutionary franchise, forced to reinvent their ways and adjust to the times having a low budget. In 2019, they had the smallest opening day payroll, but won a one-game wild card series against the Oakland Athletics and forced the eventually American League champion Houston Astros to the five-game limit in the American League Divisional Series.

What makes them attractive is how the group can be creative when it comes to utilizing Tsutsugo. In the past, I compared the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters to the Kansas City Royals. However, the Fighters are more like the Rays since 2018.

Managed by Kevin Cash, the Rays have played matchups, gone advanced in sabremetrics and started the conversation on openers in 2018. Tsutsugo impressed a handful of teams in his workout and even with his ability to play 3B if they don't like his range in the OF.

It doesn't hurt that Tsutsugo signed with an American League team, giving him the fallback option to be a DH and not be in the field for every game. Cash's micromanaging of Tsutsugo will give him the best situation to succeed in the majors. The Rays organization is built on flexibility and depth as shown by their pitching staff.

Tsutsugo's biggest question mark will be whether he can adjust to hitting MLB fastballs on a regular basis. There's indication he does well against changeups and off-speed pitches, but will need to improve on anything faster than 95 mph.

Other scouts thought his athleticism would be a problem in the field which could have been a drawback for National League teams. However, he lost weight in the last two years and appears to be in solid shape.

Position players from Japan are rare with no market as only 14 players have come to MLB and appeared in at least one game before Tsutsugo. It would be 15 if Shohei Ohtani's bat as DH counts. Among those with a lengthy amount of succeed, the numbers are fewer with Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui being the only stars while Norichika Aoki, So Taguchi, Tadhito Iguchi and Kazuo Matsui have spent a handful of years.

With the media making easy comparisons to any other countrymen that have come over, the Rays don't have much NPB history as Akinori Iwamura spent three seasons with them (2007-2009) with brief stints by H. Matsui (2012) and Hideo Nomo (2005) who were at the end of their careers. In his presser with mostly stateside branched Japanese reporters, Tsutsugo was smart enough to avoid or not discuss anything regarding the past and can write his own story with the Rays without any extra pressure of his predecessors.

For Tampa, this is a low risk signing while still acquiring a player who can help them with power hitting. They'll make sure they can work out anything they see in him being useful for next two years as they contend for another postseason berth and possible run.

Tsutsugo said all the right things without predicting what he'll do. It's time for him to get to work and showcase his hitting abilities. Good luck, Tsutsugo. You got a whole country rooting for you now and quite a few will be wearing Rays jerseys across the Pacific ocean.

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Baystars sendoff video

Dear TAMPA BAY, | GO, TSUTSU, GO.
Up high into the sky of TAMPA BAY, hit a homerun…

NARRATOR : MC RYU
（YOKOHAMA DeNA BAYSTARS 2019 STADIUM DJ）#MLB#Rays #RaysUp@RaysBaseball#GOTSUTSUGO #baystars pic.twitter.com/mzQQiGpmjX

— 横浜DeNAベイスターズ (@ydb_yokohama) December 17, 2019

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Rays video

筒香 嘉智 is the name, but you can call him Yoshi. pic.twitter.com/fYlYE1cF32

— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) December 18, 2019

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