Infielder Gosuke Katoh has signed with the Nippon-Ham Fighters of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, the team announced (h/t to the Kyoto News). It’s the first NPB stint for Katoh, who made his major league debut this past season after nine years in the minors. Katoh is represented by John Boggs & Associates.
A second-round pick of the Yankees in 2013, Katoh played in the organization through the end of 2019. He didn’t reach the big leagues and qualified for minor league free agency, bouncing between the Marlins and Padres systems before landing with the Blue Jays last offseason. Katoh cracked Toronto’s big league club out of Spring Training, but he appeared in just eight MLB games before being waived in early May. He landed with the Mets and spent the remainder of the season with their top affiliate in Syracuse, hitting .223/.310/.383 across 324 plate appearances.
New York outrighted Katoh off their 40-man roster over the summer, and he was eligible for minor league free agency this winter. Another crack with an affiliated team would have come on a minor league deal with a non-roster invitation to Spring Training. His new deal with the Fighters assuredly comes with a much stronger base salary than he’d have gotten had he played next year in Triple-A and gives him an opportunity to suit up at Japan’s highest level.
Katoh, notably, is a California native. Despite having been born and raised in the United States, he’s a dual U.S. – Japanese citizen based on his Japanese heritage. As a report from The Mainichi explains, all Japanese citizens — regardless of their place of residence or professional experience — are subject to the NPB draft if they wish to play in the league. Katoh, therefore, was part of last month’s draft alongside a number of younger, amateur players. The Fighters, coincidentally Katoh’s favorite team from childhood, selected him in the third round and agreed to terms. As a Japanese citizen, he will not count against NPB’s limit of four foreign players per roster.
It’s possible Katoh plays well enough in Japan to draw some new big league interest down the line. For now, he’ll join the Fighters as an infield option with multi-positional experience and a career .270/.360/.434 line at the Triple-A level.
The news I have been waiting all day for!
How does he still have dual citizenship? Japanese citizens that were granted dual citizenship must choose between them by the age of 22.
Call him and ask.
He doesn’t. He has Japanese cit. The writer doesn’t know this.
One of these years they will finally defeat the ham
If he had to be drafted does that mean he won’t be a FA until after 9 years?
Good luck, Gosuke !!! RB is rooting for you !!!
He can’t be a dual citizen in terms of Japan, which doesn’t recognize dual citizenship, though many people hold two passports “secretly”. US does recognize dual cit.. So he must have Japanese citizenship and not, officially, US citizenship. Anyway, a great guy and he is playing for manager Shinjo who had a good run in MLB with the Mets & Giants and is one weird dude!
If he was born in the USA, he is an American citizen unless he renounced it.
in professional soccer, they stretch the citizenship thing a little thin. for instance, if you’re English and your parents were also born in England but your great, great grandfather was from Poland, you could play for Poland.
In baseball happens the same: just look at all Americans playing for Israel or, like in the past, Anthony Rizzo playing for Italy.
That is the requirement in Japan. When you are 22 you have to renounce one if your citizenships. Given that Katoh was drafted in Japan, it’s likely he was never an American citizen but just held permanent resident status.
He was born in California. That makes him a US citizen by birth. He likely never renounced his Japanese citizenship and ignored any request for him to do so.
To be a Japanese citizen he MUST renounce any other citizenship. He cannot be a dual citizen in Japan. Since he went through the NPB draft he is a Japanese citizen.
I wonder if NPB defines citizenship and nationality differently than the Japanese government? It would seem odd for someone to renounce citizenship of the country where he was born and lived nearly the entirety of his life.
It might seem that way but it’s very common. If the individual doesn’t care about voting, a Japanese passport is the better passport to own. A very prominent example is Naomi Osaka. Raised and trained in the USA but when it came time for her to choose, she went with Japanese citizenship.
Perhaps, but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence of people who did not renounce their citizenship and Japanese officials simply didn’t enforce their policy. There are Japanese citizens who hold dual citizenship and enforcement has been lax.
Yes, I know a few myself. But it’s different for someone working for a professional baseball team.
Interesting he’s subject to the draft. I had a friend in college that was Korean based on his heritage and played basketball there. He had to go through the foreign player draft, but didn’t count against the the foreign player cap of 2 because of his heritage.
I’ll be rooting for you Katoh
Funny how the article doesn’t mention who’s managing the team right now for Nippon Ham Fighters, since he’s the true reason why Gosuke was picked at the first place. Yes, the manager is none other than …. anyone?
Hideki Kuriyama ???
scratch my last: Tsuyoshi Shinjo
google.com/search?q=nippon+ham+fighters+manager�…