The former right-hander Shintaro Fujinami of the Oakland A’s has agreed to a one-year contract with the New York Mets. According to reports, he will earn $3.35 million, with an additional $850,000 in incentives included in his contract. Jake Diekman, a former A’s lefty, was also signed by the Mets yesterday for an estimated $4 million, according to Anthony DiComo. The deal includes a 2025 vesting option. Five former A’s players make up the current Mets roster, which also includes Starling Marte, Joey Wendle, and Sean Manaea among its 26 players.
Around this time last year, the A’s signed Fuji out of Japan. He brought with him a potent arsenal, but there were doubts about his ability to fully utilize his pitch mix. By 2023, the A’s
During the regular season and spring training, Fujinami had several outings where he was dominating, recording a high number of strikeouts, and appearing completely unhittable. Then all of a sudden, he would walk the bases loaded and his command would just vanish.
The A’s were willing to give Fuji a chance to start, so he decided to take advantage of their final off-season. Before being moved to the bullpen, he had four rotational turns and a 14.40 ERA. For the year, he would start for the team three more times, totaling seven “starts.”
Fuji was a much better option out of the bullpen, and if he didn’t finish the job, the pitching staff as a whole wasn’t negatively impacted for days.
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