The Rakuten Eagles have announced the signing of Spencer Howard and Miguel Yajure for 2025. Howard and Yajure both have Major League Baseball experience.
The Nippon Professional Baseball team has officially bought two foreign pitchers. Howard, who was born in California, is 28 years old and made his MLB debut with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2020. He has bounced around the league and been up and down from the Minor Leagues. Last season, he played in nine games, making three starts between the San Francisco Giants and Cleveland Guardians. His career ERA is 7.00, and he has 136 strikeouts. He will look to showcase his talent in NPB.
Yajure has not pitched in the big leagues since 2022, when he last pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, he did play in NPB last season. He signed with the Yakult Swallows and played in 23 games, pitching 129 1/3 innings. He went 5-10 but had a 3.34 ERA and 84 strikeouts.
Yajure was born in Venezuela and debuted for the New York Yankees in 2020. He spent 2021 and 2022 in the Pirates organization, going back and forth from Triple-A to the big leagues. He had a solid first NPB season in 2023 and will now join the Eagles rotation.
