December 7, 2022

A profile of the Japanese Star who had been linked to the Blue Jays

By Evan Christie

Canadian Baseball Network

The Masataka Yoshida sweepstakes appear to be over.

The Boston Red Sox made a move and signed the left fielder Wednesday, one day after he was posted, according to ESPN. Major League Baseball formally accepted Yoshida’s posting on Tuesday. Teams had 30 days to get a deal done. They didn’t need that long as the Red Sox made Yoshida a rich man with a five-year, $90 million US contract.

The New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays had also been linked to the Japanese star.

But who is he exactly? And why were teams fawning over him.

Born in 1993 and hailing from Fukui, a city on the northern side of Japan’s main island of Honshu, and capital of the prefecture of the same name. He attended Tsuruga Kehi High School, a private school in the neighboring town of Tsuruga that has produced over 20 NPB players, despite only being established in 1986.

There Yoshida made the team as a first-year student and batted cleanup. While he was there, he played alongside future Buffaloes teammate Nobuyoshi Yamada, as well as star Hiroshima Toyo Carp outfielder Ryoma Nishikawa. The school made the 2009 and 2010 Summer Koshien Tournaments during his tenure, but Yoshida was unable to play in the 2010 tournament due to injury.

After high school, he attended Aoyama University in Sagamihara, Kanagawa. Aoyama has one of the oldest programs in Japan, with its roots dating back to 1883. There, Yoshida made fast friends with future Buffaloes teammate Yutaro Sugimoto, and in a sign of things to come, the two batted third and fourth in the lineup.

From there, Yoshida would be taken in the first round of the 2015 NPB draft by the Orix Buffaloes. He was shocked by the selection, because he felt that the Buffaloes already had a strong outfield unit, including future Japanese Hall of Famer Yoshio Itoi.

Yoshida decided to wear No. 34 in honour of Philadelphia Phillies’ Bryce Harper, who he’d been watching since the latter’s rookie season in 2012. He has often described Harper as his “target player,” as in the hitter he wanted to become.

Yoshida would make the Buffaloes out of camp as a rookie, and in October of 2016 he became the first rookie to bat cleanup for the Braves/BlueWave/Buffaloes franchise since Hideji Kato, all the way back in 1969.

Yoshida’s first two seasons with the Buffaloes were hampered by a lower-back injury, and after having surgery to correct it in the 2017-18 offseason, he stated that his goal was to play an entire 143 game season. He did not miss a game for the next three years.

From his sophomore season on, Yoshida has put up at least a .300 average, a .400 on-base percentage, a .500 slugging percentage, .900 OPS, and 160 wRC+. Every year, for the last six years. But in the last two seasons, he has turned on the jets.

Despite missing 30 games due to a foot injury that snapped his iron man streak at 512 games, Yoshida put up the second-best offensive season in his franchise’s history, and the best since 1965. Yoshida would pick up his second-straight Pacific League batting title, while also securing the OBP title with a triple slash of .329/.429/.563 for a career high .992 OPS, and a wRC+ of 193.

Yoshida led the PL in both OPS and wRC+ and was second in all of NPB in both stats to current Chicago Cub Seiya Suzuki.

He led the Buffaloes offence to their first Pacific League pennant since either 1996 (Orix) or 2001 (Kintetsu) depending on who you ask, and he likely would’ve won PL MVP, if not for the Buffaloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who put up the first all-NPB pitching triple crown in the league’s history.

After dispatching the upstart Chiba Lotte Marines in the Pacific League Climax Series, the Buffaloes fell in six games to the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, who became the first team since the 1960 Taiyo Whales (now the Yokohama DeNA BayStars) to win the Japan Series a year after finishing last in their league.

Yoshida played well in the losing effort. He walked-off Game 1 with a RBI double and scored two runs in Game 5, which was more famous for Adam Jones’ pinch-hit home run that ended up winning the game for Orix.

In the offseason, he would be granted the honur of wearing the No. 7. Seven was the number of former Hankyu Braves star Yutaka Fukumoto, who sits second on the major-pro stolen base list, only behind Rickey Henderson. Since his retirement in 1988, No. 7 has only been given out to the best hitter in the organization.

Yoshida would build on that MVP-caliber season in 2022. He put up a triple slash of .335/.447/.561, good for his first 1.000 OPS season. This was also good enough for a wRC+ of 201, which beat out his own 2021 season for the second highest in franchise history.

While a .347 batting average from Go Matsumoto prevented him from winning his third straight batting title, he did win his second straight OBP title, as well as earning the fourth all-star selection and the fifth PL Best Nine award of his career. All of this helped the Buffaloes to their second straight PL Pennant. After beating the dynastic Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in the PLCS, they were ready for a rematch against the Swallows in the Japan Series.

While Yoshida didn’t do enough to win Japan Series MVP, which instead went to his old Aoyama teammate Yutaro Sugimoto, he did make his mark on the series, hitting a third-deck walk-off home run to give the Buffaloes the win in Game 5.

So, with his NPB career out of the way, what can Yoshida bring to an big-league squad like the Red Sox.

The obvious answer is a steady bat. While expecting him to match his NPB numbers is foolish, Yoshida’s on-base ability is superb. He does not have the speed that is stereotypical of a leadoff hitter, the fact that he has had almost twice as many walks as strikeouts in recent years shows he has the plate discipline to fit that role well.

He also has light-tower power. While he is more than content to take singles and doubles, he has also been a constant 20-homer man since he became a regular player, and Shohei Ohtani has proven that you can improve your home run rate after coming over the MLB.

Yoshida’s main downside is his lack of defensive prowess. Having been used almost exclusively as a DH in recent years, he has not gotten many reps in the outfield, and when he has, he has not impressed. Of the 17 players who spent at least 300 innings roaming an NPB left field in 2022, Yoshida’s -2.5 Ultimate Zone Rating ranks 11th. Among Pacific League left fielders he was second worst, only trumped by aging Fukuoka Hawks left fielder Yurisbel Gracial.

With a corner-outfield slot open thanks to the Jays trading Teoscar Hernandez to the Mariners, Yoshida could have been an interesting player to fill the position.