Sources: MLB Scouts are Evaluating NPB Pitching Phenom

Shinnosuke Ogasawara Could Enter Posting System

At the 2015 NPB Draft, Ogasawara was a first round pick for the Dragons and Nippon Ham Fighters after both teams lost out on Jumpei Takahashi to the SoftBank Hawks. The Dragons prevailed in acquiring the high school pitcher in a lottery with the Fighters. He made his debut for the Dragons against the Hawks, becoming the first high school rookie to debut on the Opening ay of interleague play. Ogasawara tossed four strikeouts and seven walks with one earned run in five innings.

He finished his rookie season with a 2-6 record and taking 58 strikeouts with a 3.36 ERA.

Pitching Style

Ogasawara has a four pitch arsenal- a fastball that tops out at 95 mph, a curveball, slider and a changeup that comes out of the hand in a similar way to his straight delivery. Prior to his debut, he only threw his fastball and chaneup in the strikezone. With further expereicne, he started landing his curveball and slider in the zone, allowing to take more strikeouts in the process.

A New Wave of NPB Players

A new wave of NPB players have chosen to pursure their big league dreams in recent years. This past offseason, Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Shota Imanaga signed with the Chicago Cubs and Yuki Matsui with the San Diego Padres. Yu Darvish has been a five-time All-Star who finished in the top ten of Cy Young Award voting four times. Senga was the Mets best starting pitcher as a rookie last year (2.98 ERA in 29 starts)

While these players are enjoying their success in the majors, it’s no easy task making the move from NPB to MLB as it’s a complicated one.

Two Main Difficulties with the Posting System

NPB players face two challenegs with the posting system. The first being players need their team’s permission to be posted. Secondly, players need to wait several years before being classififed as “professionals” instead of “amateurs” under MLB’s international free agency standards. In order to achieve the “profesisonal” status, the foreign-born player must be at least 25 years old with atleast six years experience in a professional league.

When Shohei Ohtani chose to pursue MLB at 23, he was limited to a signing bonus. Ohtani only got just over $2.3 million due to his “amateur” status.