Left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara is looking to move to the majors, and as per a report from Yahoo Sports Japan (Japanese language link), he’ll ask the Chunichi Dragons to make him available to MLB teams via the posting system this offseason. The Yakyu Cosmopolitan also reported earlier this year that Ogasawara was aiming to pitch for a big league team in 2025, and MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reported (via X) back in April that Major League scouts were watching Ogasawara pitch in Japan.
The southpaw celebrates his 27th birthday on Tuesday, and he has appeared with the Dragons in each of the last nine Nippon Professional Baseball seasons. However, since he is short of nine full years of NPB service time, Ogasawara will need to be posted in order to make the move to North American baseball.
To recap the posting system, any team that signs Ogasawara will have to pay a separate posting fee to the Dragons that is contingent on the size of the contract — the 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, plus 17.5% of the next $25MM and 15% of any dollars thereafter. If Ogasawara is posted, Major League teams will have 45 days to reach an agreement with the left-hander. If no deal is reached within that window of time, Ogasawara will return to the Dragons for the 2025 NPB season.
Ogasawara has a 3.66 ERA over 1095 career innings for the Dragons, and he has tossed at least 141 1/3 innings in each of the last four seasons. In 2024, he had a 2.99 ERA in 141 1/3 frames, with a very impressive 3.42% walk rate but also only a 13.87% strikeout rate. While Ogasawara’s control has only been getting better during his NPB career, he has never been a big strikeout pitcher, and this season’s low rate of missed bats will certainly stand out as a potential red flag to big league evaluators.
It remains to be seen how highly Ogasawara will be judged by MLB teams, though he’ll be one of the youngest rotation candidates available in this year’s free agent market. With scouts already keeping an eye on his work for the Dragons, Ogasawara figures to draw some attention should the Dragons decide to post him.
Rsox
That name is definitely a mouth full. How i miss the days of Harry Carey butchering names on a daily basis during Cubs games on WGN
el_chapo_
Just make sure he does not hire a degenerate gambler as an interpreter.
More accurate would be to make sure he’s not a degenerate gambler who is willing to throw his life long friends under the bus at the behest of greed.
Dumpster Divin Theo
Uh…..wot?
sad tormented neglected mariners fan
I wish mlb players stop using interpreters all the time like I get it if you just came to the US within 5 years
But if you are someone like Jose Ramirez where you’ve been here for a long time but still never speak English that makes you look lazy
mlb fan
“Throw his life long friends”…Yes, I’m sure Ippei Mizuhara was willing to do up to 33 years in U.S Federal prison, just to protect his “life long friend”, Ohtani.
Nobody can “Throw you under the bus”, if you haven’t done anything wrong.
AAAAProspect
Clearly you’re unfamiliar with the justice system in the United States. Here we have politicians signing laws to arrest people for crimes the politicians openly admit they’ve done.
Also, for 50MM for my family, I would consider federal prison.