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NPB’s Hanshin Tigers Post Shintaro Fujinami

The Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball have officially posted a right-hander Shintaro Fujinamiaccording to Yakyu Cosmopolitan.

It was reported back in October that the Tigers planned to replace Fujinami. Now that it’s been made official, he and his representatives will have 30 days to secure a major league contract. If a deal is reached, the signing team will also owe money to the Tigers, with that amount being relative to the size of the contract given to Fujinami. Any big league team that signs him would owe the Tigers a fee equal to 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5% of the next $25MM and 15% of any dollars thereafter. If he does not reach an agreement with an MLB team, he will return to the Tigers for 2023.

It’s possible that Fujinami will find that there’s a wide variance in the level of interest he gets from major league teams, given the inconsistency he’s shown so far in his career. He was a highly-touted young arm in his high school days, often compared to Shohei Ohtani as the top names in their draft class. In 2013, he was thrown into the Tigers’ rotation despite being just 19 years old at the time. He ended up throwing 137 2/3 innings with a 2.75 ERA, 126 strikeouts, 44 walks and a couple of hit batters. He continued producing strong results over the next two seasons, tossing 163 innings in 2014 with a 3.53 ERA and then 199 frames in 2015 with a 2.40 ERA.

From that point on, however, control issues put a damper on his performance. He walked 70 batters in 169 innings in 2016 and then gave out 45 free passes in only 57 innings in 2017, getting sent down to the minors. He’s been shuttled between the farm and the big leagues since then, struggling to show enough improved command to keep a regular job. That was still the case in 2022, as he made 25 appearances on the year but only 16 of them were at the NPB’s top level. In those 16 appearances for Hanshin, he logged 66 2/3 innings with a 3.38 ERA, striking out 65 while walking 21 batters. He faced a total of 276 batters, meaning his walk rate was 7.6%, which is actually respectable. For reference, this year’s MLB average was 8.2%. That’s a huge improvement over 2021, where he walked 40 out of 238 batters faced for a rate of 16.8%.

Taking all this into consideration, the 30 MLB clubs will likely be able to reach different conclusions of Fujinami’s value. The most bullish teams can point to his early career success and 101 mph fastball. Despite his long tenure in NPB, he’s just 28 years old, turning 29 in April. He also showed some improved control this season. For those who take the pessimistic side, they could point to the fact that Fujinami has not been able to maintain a consistent level of performance for years.

There’s little doubt that Fujinami has some skills to bring to the table. The question will be how many major league teams believe they can use their tools to harness Fujinami into a useful pitcher in North America. It makes him an intriguing wild card addition to the offseason and we will see how his market plays out over the remainder of the year.

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