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The Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball have officially made right-hander Koyo Aoyagi available to major league teams through the posting system. MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reported that MLB has approved the posting, initiating a 45-day window for Aoyagi to sign with a big league team.
Aoyagi, who will be turning 31 next week, is viewed as a potential depth arm. Despite primarily pitching as a starter for the Tigers, Aoyagi utilizes a sidearm throwing motion more commonly seen in bullpen pitchers. He is coming off a season where he split his time evenly between the Tigers and their minor league affiliate, making 12 starts in Japan’s top level and appearing in 11 games in the minors.
In his outings at the highest level, Aoyagi posted a 3.69 ERA across 61 innings. His strikeout rate of 13% falls below the MLB average by nearly 10 percentage points. His control was decent but not exceptional, walking 7.8% of batters faced. Throughout his nine-year career in NPB, he has maintained a 3.08 ERA with a 17.1% strikeout rate. However, he is coming off a second consecutive average season, recording a 4.57 ERA over 100 1/3 innings in 2023.
Standing at 5’11”, Aoyagi represented Japan in the 2020 Olympics, where Japan went undefeated and won the gold medal. Despite this success, Aoyagi struggled in his appearances, giving up five runs in just 1 2/3 innings. He was not selected for Japan’s World Baseball Classic roster two years later.
The posting window opens today, giving Aoyagi until January 17 to secure a deal with an MLB team. If he does not receive a satisfactory offer, he will remain with the Tigers. Aoyagi’s performance indicates he may be looking at a minor league contract. Any MLB team signing him would also need to pay a release fee to the Hanshin Tigers, calculated as 20% of the contract value if it is $25MM or less.
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