News
Japanese prep pitcher in high demand
Kikuchi will hold talks with seven big league clubs next week
By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com
10/15/09 9:27 AM ET
With less than a week to go before the deadline for players to declare for Japan's amateur draft, seven Major League teams are trying to woo highly touted high school pitcher Yusei Kikuchi, according to the Nikkan Sports newspaper.Facing a choice between playing professional baseball in Japan or in the big leagues, the 18-year-old Kikuchi is scheduled to hold talks with the Red Sox, Dodgers, Rangers and Giants on Monday. The Yankees, Mets and Mariners plan on meeting with the left-hander on Tuesday.
Kikuchi, who boasts a fastball that can register as high as 96 mph, also plans on speaking with all 12 Japanese big-league ballclubs in the coming days. Teams from Japan are not allowed to make formal offers prior to the country's amateur draft on Oct. 29. Nippon Professional Baseball has requested that Major League teams also withold offers until after the draft.
Wednesday is the deadline to declare for Japan's draft, and Kikuchi seems a lock to be the first overall selection. If Kikuchi is drafted by a Japanese club and decides to sign with a Major League team, the young pitcher would face a three-year ban from NPB if he ever wanted to return to Japan to play baseball.
If a Japanese team selects Kikuchi in the draft and he agrees to pitch for them, he would have to enter a posting system or wait nine years to become a free agent. The posting route to the big leagues requires permission from the player's Japanese club to allow Major League teams to bid for the right to negotiate with the player.
In 2006, the Red Sox obtained the rights to negotiate with pitcher Diasuke Matsuzaka through the posting system with a winning bid of $51.1 million. Boston drew criticism last year when it signed Japanese amateur pitcher Junichi Tazawa, who was passed up in Japan's amateur draft after indicating he wanted to play in the Majors.
Tazawa, who was 22 years old at the time and had pitched in the Japanese industrial leagues before signing with the Red Sox, is one of only three Japanese players to have played in the Majors without first having played pro ball in Japan. Kazuhito Tadano and Mac Suzuki are the others.
Jordan Bastian is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
