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The Saitama Seibu Lions announced they signed RHP Jesus Tinoco on Thursday. He will wear No. 54.
Tinoco, who will turn 28 in April, was on the Texas Rangers last season. He earned a MLB roster spot for most of the second half and has a strong September. However, his primary highlight was being the pitcher to give up Aaron Judge's last home run of the year, his 62nd which is now a single-season American League record.
With a decent September, Tinoco even earned some opener starts as the Rangers were in the midst of transition and cleaning house with the firing of both their manager Chris Woodward and head of baseball operations Jon Daniels. They recently passed the torch to Chris Young, who has a general manager title in name only before Daniels was dismissed.
He also had two separate stints with the Colorado Rockies and one with Miami Marlins. His career began as an international free agent signing with the Toronto Blue Jays organization until he was traded to Colorado in 2015 as part of a deal involving Troy Tulowitzki and Jose Reyes.
As a pitcher for the Lions, Tinoco could through as fast as 97 mph (157 km/H) which sounds nice in velocity on paper. Besides a four-seam fastball, he can throw a curve ball, slider and sinker.
The Lions will most likely slot him as a reliever as a possible bridge before the closer position with Kaima Taira going into the rotation. He should be depth to go with Yoshinobu Mizukami and Keisuke Honda (dubbed H&M) as setup men.
Tinoco is the first foreign signing by the Lions in this offseason and only the third on the roster to go with Dietrich Enns and Bo Takahashi.
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