Takumi Kuriyama, Yuji Kaneko, Yudai Furukawa, Aito Takeda, Yuta Nakamigawa, Junichiro Kishi, Seiji Kawagoe, Romer Cuadrado, Joseph Miyamoto, Montell Higuma
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It's interesting how Kodama and Aoyama will be given a look with the ichi-gun staff alongside the obvious first round draft pick Hiruma. If Kodama impresses, it's possible he can be plugged into the infield and be an immediate help.
The Lions put all the veterans in B-camp and more than usual this time around, it feels like a half rebuild coming.
As the final domino fell among NPB players going to MLB, it had the least amount of fanfare. Shintaro Fujinami signed with the Oakland Athletics this month and was officially introduced on Tuesday along with his agent Scott Boras, interpreter Issei Yamada, manager Mark Kotsay and General Manager David Forst.
Fujinami, who turns 29 in April, signed a one year, $3.25 million contract with the A's, while the team will pay the Hanshin Tigers a $650,000 posting fee with 20% of the contract.
What made him sign with the Oakland A's? It was all about the opportunity and chance to play.
"It was important for him to have a chance to be a starter. That’s how we’ve seen him perform in Japan," Forst said. "I expect he’ll be in the rotation. We have a lot of questions to answer about our rotation overall. But with his track record and the way he pitched down the stretch for Hanshin, we know he’ll be an important part of our rotation."
The Oakland A's had a continuous revolving door with players being shuffled at all positions in 2022.
Only two spots in the rotation are guaranteed with Cole Irvin and Paul Blackburn being there from last year.
James Kaprielian is coming off an injury while JP Sears and Ken Waldichuk were both starters to end the season coming from a trade that involved Frankie Montas.
The A's also signed Drew Rucinski, who spent the last four seasons as a starter for the NC Dinos in KBO. Throw in former first round draft pick A.J. Puk who could also be a candidate and there's just too many names.
To begin the year, they can afford to run a six-man rotation to ease Fujinami into a regular rotation schedule, let alone experiment with the pitchers who are the roster.
The news outlets in Japan had Fujinami linked to the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants and Boston Red Sox, but the A's emerged as the favorites when the dust settled and January came about. He flew to the States last week to take his physical and sign all the paperwork necessary.
Kotsay said he will be back in Japan to acquire the work visa before going to Arizona for spring training.
By signing with the A's, it's a sign that he has to prove his worth to earn something later.
The A's will be able to play him in order to get noticed elsewhere and if he does well to start, they'll trade him before the July 31 deadline and get a prospect or two in return.
It's likely other teams weren't willing to play him immediately and saw too much risk with his control history.
Fujinami came off one of his best seasons in seven years by lowering his walk rate and being useful multiple roles from the rotation and bullpen. Like most A's pitchers, he should benefit from playing inside the Oakland Coliseum, which has a large foul territory.
He can throw a curveball, fastball, two-seamer, cutter, slider and splitter. It's a versatile load as with most Japanese pitchers, but he and the team will need to figure out what is most useful going forward.
For the A's it's a low-risk signing while also breaking a glass ceiling at the same time.
This is the first time they've paid a posting fee after previously winning a bid for Hisashi Iwakuma's rights, only to low-ball him to prevent anyone else from signing the pitcher.
Historically, they never sign a Scott Boras client in free agency either. Boras is an agent who is great at getting a player what he wants and most of the time, it's money.
In the past, Boras would use the A's as leverage to bring out more funds from another team throwing a better offer like Adrian Beltre as an example.
In Fujinami's case, he valued wanting a job in the starting rotation over funds. The A's have their own uncertainty from location to several players not being part of the long term future.
Previously, Yusei Kikuchi wanted a team who could be patient with his development as he picked the Seattle Mariners over other teams who may have offered more money.
The other glass ceiling was holding a public press conference, their first since Yoenis Cespedes before the 2012 season among major leaguers. They signed Hiroyuki Nakajima for 2013, but he failed to play in an MLB game.
Last year, the A's offloaded their asset players before their value diminishes over time. The result of 2022 was their first 100 loss season since 1979, mostly playing a roster full of career minor leaguers who got a chance to showcase themselves and be noticed. Most recently Matt Davidson, David MacKinnon and Sheldon Neuse were part of the 2022 A's and signed contracts with NPB teams for 2023.
As a trivial coincidence, Fujinami is swapping teams and places with Neuse as the latter will be with the Hanshin Tigers.
The A's are one of the softest media markets in baseball being in the heart of the Bay Area. They don't move the needle with a small fanbase combined with being second fiddle to the San Francisco Giants.
This is a complete 180 from what Fujinami experienced with the Hanshin Tigers where Kansai is the most intense market in Japan. Instead of being high profile, he could be anonymous and go incognito in the Bay Area with a mostly empty Oakland Coliseum.
Fujinami has a lot to prove, but if he pulls of a strong start, someone else will want him and offer the A's something in return. It's win for all sides of he plays well.
This is just an audition in Oakland with the plan to use the A's as a stepping stone for the long haul.
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ICYMI: Here are some media things about Fujinami
Interview on A's cast with Chris Townnsend
GM David Forst on Fujinami
Fujinami's outing in August Forst spoke of.
While he spoke about preferring his nickname as "Fuji" like Mt. Fuji, the former Japanese nickname he carried was Shin-chan. If anyone approaches him, Shin-chan would fit the bill.
Kodai Senga signed with the New York Mets to a five-year, $75 million contract this past week. He has the flexibility to opt out after the 2025 season if he wishes.
As Senga, who will be 30 in January, was introduced to the media and it was clear how much he wanted to win over having a payday.
What helps about this signing? He doesn't need to be an ace or the top pitcher in the Mets rotation.
The Mets already have Max Scherzer and newly signed Justin Verlander to take the top two rotation spots while Senga could be the No. 3 pitcher.
Last year, the Mets looked like they would dominate the NL Division, yet found a way to come up short and couldn't hold off the red hot Atlanta Braves in the final games. New York was eventually eliminated by the San Diego Padres in the wild card round for what was an embarrassing collapse.
Jacob deGrom signed with the Texas Rangers while Chris Bassitt joined the Toronto Blue Jays in free agency, so the Mets brought in some different faces to reload. New York also lost Taijuan Walker to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Besides Verlander and Senga, the Mets also signed Jose Quintana which should solidify the rotation. They could easily pitch David Peterson or Carlos Carrasco as the No. 5 or even No. 6 starters as well for the back end.
There are other depth options including Elieser Hernandez, who was acquired by trade from the Miami Marlins and even Joey Lucchesi, who is returning from Tommy John surgery.
An argument can be made their rotation could be even better than what it produced in 2022. They could ease Senga into the rotation with six men to start until he's used to pitching every four days.
What has helped for the Mets is the change in ownership from having the controversial Wilpon family to now Steven A. Cohen.
Since Cohen purchased the team, they've been willing and spend and invest in players, including having to eat the remainder of Robinson Cano's contract. Cohen himself has been active on social media as if he were just a rabid fan wanting to win. Money hasn't been a problem as he's provided plenty of resources.
They've signed several free agents last year including Mark Canha, the aforementioned Scherzer and Starling Marte while they retained OF Brandon Nimmo this year to an eight-year contract.
Notably, Billy Eppler became the GM in 2021, the same person who helped orchestrate the signing of Shohei Ohtani to the Los Angeles Angels. Difference with Eppler today is how he doesn't have a hands-on owner watching over his back on every move and has more freedom under Cohen.
In the opening press conference, Eppler rightfully introduced Senga mentioning not only his obvious championships and easy accomplishments, but the fact that he was an ikusei (developmental player) before he even made it to the ichi-gun of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.
"He had to scratch and claw his way to the NPB," Eppler said of Senga. "He's constantly working to improve. He fought his way to become a star. That's a pretty good sign of resiliency. Frankly, I think it's one that Mets fans in the community would really identify with and feel good about."
Senga had to work his way up the ladder starting at the bottom and being a reliever before they made him a starting pitcher in 2016.
The spotlight of New York shouldn't be a problem for Senga since he's been an ace in the past. If we're looking at concerns, it's his walk rate hovering around 9% while giving up home runs at a consistent rate.
Durability was also a concern with recent shoulder and ankle injuries, but when healthy, Senga's fastball and "ghost" fork ball (splitter) should be effective in MLB. The former can go as fast as 102 mph. It wouldn't hurt if he could improve his slider for an extra pitch into his arsenal.
Competition will be fierce as the Philadelphia Phillies were in the World Series last season while the aforementioned Braves won the division on the final week. Senga is already embracing his new challenge saying he looks forward to facing the Phillies lineup.
The Mets are contenders on paper, yet they still haven't shown they can finish a full season like 2015 under this current regime. Every game counts.
Senga is already looking forward to being with teammates Scherzer and Verlander while he picked up the advice from Yu Darvish to learn more English.
It's been a long time coming for Senga as he expressed desire to be in MLB as early as 2017, when he was at the World Baseball Classic playing for Samurai Japan. The Hawks stayed consistent with their policies in posting players, which is never doing it at all, forcing Senga to wait for international free agent rights.
The best thing about this whole process was not having any deadline and being allowed to visit cities, teams and not rush the process like the posting system would have done. It was a carefully calculated decision to want to win now, not about the money at all.
