With the Tyler Glasnow commerce now finalized and Ryan Pepiot part of the Rays’ pitching combine, the workforce is constant to search for pitching assist. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times stories that “the Rays have some curiosity in” Naoyuki Uwasawa, whose 45-day posting window is up on January 11.
Tampa turns into the seventh MLB workforce identified to have some degree of curiosity within the right-hander, as a Sports activities Hochi report (Japanese language link) in September revealed that the Angels, Cubs, Diamondbacks, Rangers, Reds, and Royals all had scouts watching one in every of Uwasawa’s begins for the Nippon Ham-Fighters. It’s most likely secure to imagine much more groups have some degree of curiosity in Uwasawa as a consequence of each his monitor file in Nippon Skilled Baseball, and the truth that he may need a comparatively low price ticket compared to many different free agent pitchers available on the market.
Uwasawa (who turns 30 in February) had a 3.19 ERA over 1118 1/3 profession innings in NPB, all with the Fighters from 2014-2023. Although it took just a few years for the righty to completely set up himself on the Fighters’ roster, Uwasawa’s outcomes have all the time been fairly stable, and his 2.96 ERA over 170 innings in 2023 represented a profession finest. Uwasawa is a three-time NPB All-Star, together with a nod this previous season.
The 2 huge knocks towards Uwasawa from a Main League scouting perspective are his lack of strikeouts (19.67% strikeout price) and an absence of velocity. Uwasawa’s common fastball clocked in at round 90.8mph in 2023, in accordance with MLBTR’s Dai Takegami Podziewski in the September edition of the NPB Gamers To Watch characteristic. Whereas Uwasawa has stable management and clearly his contact-heavy method has led to nice success in Japan, whether or not or not his stuff will be capable to idiot MLB hitters over the long run is definitely a query entrance workplaces are asking themselves as they think about gives.
The Rays have an extended historical past of serving to pitchers both obtain new ranges of success or flip their careers round solely, so one would think about they might be a very stable touchdown spot for a pitcher making the transition from NPB to MLB. Tampa Bay doesn’t have a prolonged historical past with Japanese pitchers or the posting system normally, but broadly, any intriguing participant who represents one thing of a discount signing would attraction to a Rays workforce that’s all the time trying to preserve a restricted payroll.
Signing Uwasawa would value the Rays or any MLB workforce an extra posting payment to the Fighters, on prime of no matter Uwasawa himself would earn in a contract. The Fighters’ launch payment can be value 20% of the contract’s first $25MM, 17.5% of the deal’s subsequent $25MM, after which 15% of any cash past $50MM. If Uwasawa doesn’t comply with a Main League contract by the top of his 45-day posting window, he would return to the Fighters for the 2024 NPB season.
