The Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Skilled Baseball introduced final night time that they’ve made right-hander Koyo Aoyagi accessible to main league groups by way of the posting system. Jon Morosi of the MLB Community tweets that MLB has permitted the posting, which opens a 45-day window for the pitcher to signal with an enormous league staff.
Aoyagi, who turns 31 subsequent week, appears to challenge as a depth arm. Whereas he has labored as a beginning pitcher for the Tigers, Aoyagi throws from a sidearm slot that’s extra generally discovered within the bullpen. He’s coming off a pedestrian season which he cut up nearly evenly between the Tigers and their minor league affiliate. Aoyagi made 12 begins at Japan’s prime stage and pitched 11 occasions within the minors.
Throughout his work on the highest stage, he turned in a 3.69 ERA throughout 61 innings. His 13% strikeout charge could be practically 10 proportion factors under the MLB common. He confirmed first rate however not distinctive management, strolling 7.8% of batters confronted. His profession observe document is a little more spectacular. He owns a 3.08 ERA with a 17.1% strikeout proportion throughout 9 NPB campaigns. This was his second consecutive middling season, although. Aoyagi was tagged for a 4.57 ERA throughout 100 1/3 innings for the Tigers in 2023.
The 5’11” hurler pitched for Japan on the 2020 Olympics (held in Tokyo a 12 months late because of the pandemic). Japan went 5-0 and gained the gold medal, although Aoyagi was tagged for 5 runs in 1 2/3 innings throughout two appearances. He didn’t make the nation’s World Baseball Traditional roster two years later.
Assuming the posting window formally opened at the moment, Aoyagi may have till January 17 to signal with an MLB staff. If he doesn’t discover a proposal to his liking, he’d stay with the Tigers. Aoyagi’s numbers counsel he may very well be restricted to a minor league deal. If he indicators with an MLB staff, that membership would additionally owe a launch charge to the Hanshin Tigers. The charge is proportional to the scale of the contract. Within the very probably occasion that he indicators for $25MM or much less, the posting charge could be 20% of the assure.
