Japanese right-hander Naoyuki Uwasawa is planning a transfer to North American baseball, because the Nippon Ham-Fighters starter informed reporters (together with the Kyodo Information) at a press convention. Uwasawa isn’t but a full agent, so he will probably be made out there to Main League by way of the posting system. Uwasawa turns 30 in February, and has a 3.19 ERA over 1118 1/3 profession innings with the Fighters, together with a 7.5% stroll charge and a modest 19.67% strikeout charge.
Making his NPB debut in 2014, Uwasawa is a three-time All-Star (together with this season) and has developed right into a dependable starter by way of each outcomes and sturdiness, other than a freak damage that shortened his 2019 season. Uwasawa had his left knee fractured by a line drive that yr, however has returned in good well being, tossing 102 innings through the pandemic-shortened 2020 season after which throwing at the least 152 innings in every of the final three full NPB seasons.
MLBTR’s Dai Takegami Podziewski has frequently featured Uwasawa in his NPB Gamers To Watch function, as Uwasawa has made his intentions clear for a while that he wished to check himself towards North American competitors. There are some issues over Uwasawa’s skill to transition to the massive leagues, as Dai wrote that “Uwasawa doesn’t have an overwhelming arm along with his common fastball velocity sitting round 90.8 mph. He additionally doesn’t boast strikeout stuff, without having the identical command that [Kohei] Arihara had when he was coming to MLB (though Arihara himself was wild throughout his Rangers tenure).” The point out of Arihara isn’t a promising comp, as Arihara had a 7.57 ERA over 60 2/3 innings with Texas in 2021-22 earlier than returning to Nippon Skilled Baseball for the 2023 marketing campaign.
Nonetheless, MLB groups are gauging for themselves how effectively they suppose Uwasawa may fare towards massive league competitors. A Sports activities Hochi report from September indicated that scouts from the Rangers, Diamondbacks, Reds, Royals, Cubs, and Angels all noticed Uwasawa in motion, so the righty is drawing a good quantity of curiosity. Whereas Uwasawa doesn’t have the excessive profile of NPB stars like Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Shota Imanaga, and others this winter, he does signify an fascinating mid-level entry into the pitching market who in all probability gained’t require a very massive contract.
As a reminder in regards to the MLB/NPB posting system, any gamers with lower than 9 full years of expertise should first be posted by his Japanese crew earlier than negotiating with Main League golf equipment. As soon as posted, Uwasawa has 45 days to speak with any MLB crew he needs, and he would return to the Fighters after these 45 days if no contract settlement is reached. The Fighters would obtain a posting payment if Uwasawa did signal with a Main League crew, with the payment being price at the least 20% of the assured worth of Uwasawa’s contract. Ought to Uwasawa signal for greater than $25MM in assured cash, the Fighters would obtain a better payment.
