A’s add Japanese righty who used to be Ohtani’s rival, per report

The A’s made perhaps their biggest addition of the offseason Wednesday, adding Japanese pitcher Shintaro Fujinami from the Hanshin Tigers.

Fujinami was posted by the Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan last month, and the A’s have agreed to bring him in on a one-year deal pending a physical, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

Terms of the deal have not been reported and the team has not yet announced the signing.

The 28-year-old Fujinami is expected to join the A’s rotation, according to Passan, but CBS Sports’ R.J. Anderson cited scouting sources projecting him as a high-velocity reliever.

He throws mostly an upper-90s four-seam fastball and a splitter, which is his best strikeout pitch, though he also has used a slider in the past.

Fujinami would slot into an A’s rotation that includes 2022 All-Star Paul Blackburn and Cole Irvin. Last year’s team rotated through a number of young starters to fill out the back half of the rotation, and the 2023 Athletics might well do the same as they aren’t expected to compete for the AL West.

Last month, the A’s also signed righty Drew Rucinski, who returns to MLB for the first time since 2018 following a strong season in Korea, so he will be in the mix for a rotation spot. Rucinski, 34, reportedly agreed to a one-year, $3 million deal. He made 66 appearances, mostly as a reliever, from 2014-18 with the Angels, Twins and Marlins.

According to posting rules, the team has until Saturday afternoon to sign Fujinami before his rights would return to Hanshin. The A’s must agree to a posting fee with the NPB team in addition to coming to terms with Fujinami on his salary.

Fujinami was a phenom once considered a rival to Shohei Ohtani in high school and made the jump directly to the pros. He posted two seasons of sub-3.00 ERA ball before age 22, including a 2.75 ERA with 126 strikeouts over 137 2/3 innings as a 19-year-old rookie.

His career took a dip as he struggled with command while adjusting to the professional game, but at age 28 last season, he had somewhat of a renaissance, posting a 2.77 ERA and striking out 115 batters against just 36 walks over 107 1/3 innings.

The Red Sox were also among the teams tied to Fujinami.

Fujinami becomes the second player to sign with the A’s out of Japan in the past three years. Shohei Tomioka, a 26-year-old who pitched for the A’s High-A team in Midland last year, was signed in January 2020 after attending an open tryout in Japan the A’s had advertised on Twitter. Tomioka was a pitcher for a Japanese industrial league team at the time.

Fujunami, though, becomes the third free agent to ever join Oakland directly from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League. Neither of the two previous A’s signings from the NPBL made much of an impact for them – 36-year-old right-hander Keiichi Yabu, signed for $1 million in 2005 and 30-year-old infielder Hiroyuki Nakajima, signed a 2-year, $6.5 million deal in 2013.

Yabu went 4-0 with a 4.50 ERA in 40 relief appearances before being released at the end of the 2005 season. He later caught on with the Giants and went 3-6 with a 3.57 ERA in 60 games with San Francisco.

The slick-fielding Nakajima never made it to the majors. He spent two seasons with the A’s Triple-A team in Sacramento, batting .268 with an OPS of .667 in 102 games.

Jon Becker contributed to this story.