Starting pitcher Tomohiro Anraku of Saibi High School throws during the second round game against Mie High School in the National High School Baseball Championships at Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, western Japan, on August 14, 2013. (Photo credit should read JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images)
Japanese right-handed pitcher Tomohiro Anraku has signed a contract with the Diablos Rojos del México in Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, reports Yakyu Cosmopolitan on X.
Anraku had spent all nine seasons of his professional baseball career in Nippon Professional baseball with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
The Eagles released Anraku in December after reports were made by several young players on the team that he was harassing and bullying them. The Japan Times reported that Anraku was pulling down his teammate’s pants and making harassing late-night phone calls after they refused to dine with him.
During a press conference announcing Anraku’s release, Masayuki Morii, the team’s president, said the accusations of harassment by the pitcher were “mostly true.”
Former New York Yankee and current Eagles starting pitcher Masahiro Tanaka apologized shortly after the club cut ties with Anraku. Tanaka felt he should have taken action earlier and stopped the harassment.
“Harassment is inexcusable,” Tanaka said on his personal X account. “As a senior member of the team, I should have been more attentive to my younger teammates and taken the initiative to step in and say something if there was a problem. I regret that I was ignorant.”
“I’ve heard that each player and the club are talking about this issue,” Tanaka said on X. “I am determined to do everything I can to ensure that we can fight the pennant race as a team once again and that our fans can cheer us on with peace of mind.”
Anraku was selected second overall in the 2014 Nippon Professional Baseball Draft by the Eagles out of Saibi High School in Ehime Prefecture, Japan. During the 2013 Spring Koshien high school tournament, he threw 772 pitches in five games, including 232 in a 13-inning complete game.
“I left the mound feeling so bad,” Anraku told Chris Jones of ESPN in 2013. “It was also an incredible experience for me. It’s given me great confidence. I found my level. Now I know what I need to do to get to the next level.”
The next level for Anraku was Nippon Professional Baseball with the Eagles, where he was mainly a relief pitcher for nine seasons from 2015-23. He posted a 3.04 ERA with 32 strikeouts in 57 appearances in 2023. He has a career ERA of 3.59 and 277 strikeouts in 365.2 innings.
Now, with the Diablos Rojos del México, Anraku will try to build relationships with his new teammates despite his troubling past. He pitched for Japan in the 2016 U-23 World Baseball World Cup in Monterrey, Mexico, where Japan defeated Australia in the championship game to secure the title. Anraku will likely pitch in relief for the Diablos Rojos del México.
One of Anraku’s new teammates will be 41-year-old second baseman Robinson Cano, who the Diablos Rojos del Mexico announced this past Friday they had signed for the 2024 LMB season. Cano, with 17 years of Major League Baseball experience, played 24 games with the Estrellas Orientales during the 2023-24 Liga de Béisbol Profesional de la República Dominicana regular season, and eight games for the Tigres del Licey in the 2024 Caribbean Series as a reinforcement.
Like Anraku, Cano has some skeletons in his closet, having twice been suspended by Major League Baseball for using performance enhancing drugs, including an 80-game ban in 2018 and a season-long suspension in 2021.
The Diablos Rojos del Mexico will play two exhibition games against the New York Yankees on March 24 and 25 at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu in Mexico City. The team will play its first game of the 2024 LMB regular season on April 11 against the Pericos de Puebla, which will also be played at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu, the organization’s home field.