TOKYO, Japan – Let’s take a brief look at how some notable former MLB players are doing in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.
Tanaka posted a 3.74 ERA in his New York Yankees career after signing the biggest contract in posting system history in 2014 at seven years, $155 million. He had what many considered a premature end to his MLB career, citing anti-Asian racism as one of his reasons for leaving America to go home to his original team, the Rakuten Eagles, in 2021. For the first two years of his much-anticipated return, Tanaka posted a solid but unremarkable 3.16 ERA, picking up his 100th career NPB win in the process.
However, he had a steep fall-off in 2023, registering a 4.91 ERA — the worst among all NPB pitchers with at least 15 starts. He underwent elbow cleaning surgery over the offseason and is yet to pitch in 2024. Regardless of how the rest of Tanaka’s career turns out, he will be one of the best Japanese pitchers ever. But fans on both sides of the Pacific hope this is not the last we see of Tanaka’s greatness.
Akiyama became the first Japanese player in Cincinnati Reds history in 2020, inking a three-year, $21 million deal. The Reds were the last team in MLB to have never had a Japanese player until Akiyama. Unfortunately, his tenure proved unfruitful, hitting .224 with a 57 OPS+ across 366 plate appearances from 2020 to 2021.
He briefly played in Triple-A for the Padres before returning to Japan in the summer of 2022, where he signed with the Hiroshima Carp rather than his original club, the Seibu Lions.
Though he was unable to hit a single home run in MLB, Akiyama will likely not have any regrets, knowing he gave it everything he had. He’s hit slightly above league-average in his three seasons with Hiroshima but is far from the elite contact hitter he once was, even breaking the single-season NPB hit record (once held by Ichiro) in 2015.
Like Akiyama, Tsutsugo made his MLB debut in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign after signing a two-year, $12 million contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. He hit his first career homer off Hyun-Jin Ryu and had a 99 OPS+ for the season, even making a World Series appearance.
From 2021 to 2024, Tsutsugo bounced around from the Dodgers, Pirates, Blue Jays, Rangers, and Giants, and even had a short stay with the independent league Staten Island FerryHawks, never giving up on his MLB dream. Unfortunately, he never made it back to the MLB level.
On May 6 this year, he made his much-anticipated return to the DeNA Baystars. In 32 NPB games, he’s slashing .222/.300/.479 with six home runs. His strikeout rate is very high at 29.2%, but he’s finding his groove again back home.
Aoki won three batting titles in Japan before going stateside in 2012. He became the hallmark of consistency over his six-year MLB career, slashing .285/.350/.387 with an OPS+ between 98 and 109 each year.
He was also a key contributor to the 2014 Kansas City Royals team that stole over 150 bases and fell just one win short of a World Series title. He returned to his original team, the Yakult Swallows, in 2018 and averaged 4.3 WAR a year over the next three seasons, including a 2020 campaign in which he had 5.2 WAR and a .981 OPS at age 38.
Now 42 years young, Aoki is still active as a bench player and has the sixth-highest batting average (.313) in NPB history for batters with at least 4000 at-bats. Though retirement is around the corner, he will go down as one of the best pure Japanese hitters ever with extraordinary longevity that rivals even Ichiro Suzuki.
Foreign players in Japan are struggling more than ever as MLB teams become better at identifying overlooked talent, and NPB competition continues to reach new heights, but Santana has been a rare exception.
He smashed 77 home runs with a 109 OPS+ in 7 MLB seasons with Houston, Milwaukee, Seattle, and Cleveland. He joined the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 2021, immediately becoming a core member of a championship-winning team.
He slashed .290/.366/.511 with 19 homers in 116 games, hitting a critical 2-run home run in Game 3 of the Japan Series to help flip the series in Yakult’s favor. In subsequent seasons, Santana has continued to mash, establishing himself as the best NPB foreign hitter of the 2020s thus far with a career .296/.366/.509 line.
He’s become one of the favorites of the Swallows’ fan base, alongside fellow Latin Jose Osuna, for their likability on and off the field. Now 31 years old, Santana still has many quality seasons to offer as the Swallows hope to retain him for the long haul.
Osuna became the youngest pitcher in MLB history to reach the 100-save milestone in 2018 but was arrested and suspended for domestic violence before suffering an elbow injury in 2020. He briefly pitched in his native Mexico before joining the Lotte Marines midway through the 2022 campaign, posting ten saves and a minuscule 0.91 ERA in 29 appearances.
After the season, he signed with the SoftBank Hawks and replicated his success with 26 saves and a 0.92 ERA. He inked a four-year extension worth over $26 million at the end of the year. He’s taken a step back this season, already allowing more walks and runs than the entirety of 2023, but still holds the closer spot as his team aims to take home the Japan Series.
Osuna’s bullpen mate in Fukuoka, Darwinzon Hernandez, flashed gaudy strikeout numbers in his four seasons with the Boston Red Sox, recording 14.0 K/9 across 85.1 innings. However, his failure to find the strike zone consistently resulted in 7.7 BB/9 and a career 5.06 ERA. He took his talents to NPB midway through the 2023 campaign and spent most of the time adjusting in the minors, though he made a few top-team appearances late in the year.
He’s become a shutdown option for the Hawks in 2024, striking out 28 batters in 17 innings and keeping his walks relatively under control with just nine free passes. At present, he’s one of the premier lefty relievers in Japan.
Reyes clubbed 37 home runs with a .263 ISO in his sophomore season with San Diego and Cleveland, becoming one of the most feared young sluggers in baseball. He had another 30-homer season as recently as 2021 but struggled from 2022 to 2023, hitting just .217 with 181 strikeouts in 137 games. He signed with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2024 to be a full-time DH. He struggled mightily early in the season, batting .170 and striking out 33% of the time in March and April.
He was briefly demoted to the minors to adjust and has showcased much better results upon returning to the NPB level, posting a 128 wRC+ in May and a 201 wRC+ so far in June. Overall, Reyes owns a 123 wRC+ in 32 games. Though swing-and-miss issues will continue to hinder him, he has the power to provide thump in an era where the league-average NPB slugging percentage is only .332.
Photo Credit: Masahiro Tanaka #18 of Team Japan reacts against Team United States. (Photo by Koji Watanabe/Getty Images)
