Masataka Yoshida Signed With the Red Sox

Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images

All of the speculation and waiting has come to an end because Masataka Yoshida signed with the Boston Red Sox. The contract is for five years and totals $90 million. However, with the posting fee due to his former team, the Orix Buffaloes of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), of $15.4M, the total cost to Boston is $105.4M. Yoshida is another huge signing out of Japan that has seen a long line of very good players before him. This list includes the likes of, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideo Nomo, Hideki Matsui, Yu Darvish, Masahiro Tanaka, Shohei Ohtani, and many more.

The Red Sox wasted no time in signing Yoshida, signing him on the very day he was posted. A lot of teams were very interested in signing Masataka Yoshida, and his posting was highly anticipated. The Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, Baltimore Orioles, and even the New York Yankees were reported as likely landing spots for the leadoff man, with Boston as kind of a “dark horse.” Nevertheless, Masataka Yoshida signed with that dark horse.

Yoshida’s Career Stats

Register Batting
Year Age AgeDif Tm Aff G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
2017 23 2 Teams 69 284 242 45 74 11 0 13 40 1 1 40 36 .306 .405 .512 .917
2018 24 -3.9 Orix 143 598 514 77 165 37 2 26 86 3 1 69 74 .321 .403 .553 .956
2019 25 -2.9 Orix 143 610 521 92 168 24 2 29 85 5 1 79 64 .323 .413 .543 .956
2020 26 -2.0 Orix 120 492 408 55 143 22 1 14 64 8 5 72 29 .351 .453 .512 .966
2021 27 2 Teams 112 460 393 61 132 22 1 21 72 0 0 59 26 .336 .426 .557 .983
2022 28 2 Teams 121 515 417 57 140 28 1 21 89 4 0 82 42 .336 .449 .559 1.007
Year Age AgeDif Tm Aff G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
Fore Fore Fore Fore 781 3251 2759 425 900 164 7 135 474 21 10 427 307 .326 .419 .538 .957
NPB NPB NPB NPB 762 3189 2703 418 884 161 7 133 467 21 10 421 300 .327 .421 .539 .960
All All All All 781 3251 2759 425 900 164 7 135 474 21 10 427 307 .326 .419 .538 .957
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/7/2022.

What Masataka Yoshida Did Before He Signed

In his seven career seasons in the NPB, Yoshida batted .327/.421/.539 with 133 homers and 467 RBI. The most impressive stat of them all is his 421 walks against only 300 strikeouts. There are not very many players who can boast of a walks-to-strikeout differential of plus 121 walks. This alone makes him a premium option at the top of the Red Sox lineup–adding some pop to the top with his 161 doubles and 133 homers. However, success in Japan does not always translate to success in MLB, but it often does, so it will be very exciting to watch him as he makes that transition.

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