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Oakland A’s agree to one-year deal with Shintaro Fujinami

Dominic Gutierrez / MLB / January 11, 2023

Oakland A’s agree to one-year deal with Shintaro Fujinami

The Oakland A’s are having an underrated offseason and continue to add nice depth pieces. They’ve now added to their rotation, signing Shintaro Fujinami from the Hanshin Tigers in Japan.

Jeff Passan of ESPN was first to report the signing.

Right-hander Shintaro Fujinami and the Oakland A's are in agreement on a one-year deal, pending physical, a source tells ESPN. Fujinami, 28, is expected to join the A's rotation. He arrives from the Hanshin Tigers, where he spent 10 seasons.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 11, 2023

The 28-year-old has been with the Tigers for a while now as Passan mentioned. But throughout those 10 years, Fujinami has been pretty dominant. In 2022, he pitched a 2.77 ERA in 107 innings with 115 strikeouts.

He was an even bigger star in high school, being in the same draft class as Shohei Ohtani. As a 19-year-old rookie for the Tigers, Fujinami pitched a 2.75 ERA and 137 innings. He pitched a sub-3.00 ERA in his first four seasons and was looking to become a promising young star who would head to MLB.

There’s a reason he didn’t make it sooner like Ohtani. In 2017, Fujinami’s career fell off the rails due to pitching a 161-pitch game, which ruined his command. Fujinami had already struggled with command prior to that game but throwing that many pitches set it off.

That 2022 season helped Fujinami find his groove by making some appearances out of the bullpen. His upper-90s fastball which can reach double digits helped him strikeout 23.6% of his opponents. He also turned in a career-low 7.6% walk rate. MLB scouts have had him on the radar since his rookie season, so the struggles over the past five years haven’t taken too much away from that.

For a rebuilding A’s team, it’s a perfect situation for Fujinami to find his groove in the majors. Playing in a pitcher-friendly ballpark should also help keep his ERA down. The A’s also have a plethora of starters behind Cole Irvin and Paul Blackburn, which will add a needed competition for Fujnami to compete.

A good season for Fujnami could land him a longer contract elsewhere, and like Ohtani, can become another Japanese star to strike the league.