Toronto, Canada /
Free agency signings remain the order of the day on the third day after the work stoppage was lifted in Major League Baseball (MLB). With the needs well identified and the options well evaluated, Toronto Blue Jays added a great pitcher to his staff, well they agreed with the southpaw Yusei Kikuchi for three years and 36 million dollars.
Kikuchi became a free agent after the 2021 campaign. Major League Baseball; his former team, Seattle Mariners, refused to trade option that he had his contract because the pitcher showed complications after the first half of the season.
The lefty reached Major Leagues in the 2019 season after actuating by eight campaigns in Japan’s NBP. In his first year in the United States, Kikuchi made a total of 32 starts for the Mariners although the results were not entirely positive as he had 6-11 record and 5.46 ERA. In the shortened 2020 campaign, the Japanese started nine games and finished with mark of 2-4 and PCLA of 5.11numbers that questioned his future in the organization.
Kikuchi started the 2021 season on the right footso much so that he was the only representative from Seattle in the All-Star Game in Denver, Colorado, since at that point in the campaign he had a 3.18 ERA in 15 startsbut, the setbacks began in the second half of the campaign, so the Japanese finished with a total record of 7-9 in 29 starts with a 4.41 ERA.
Blue Jays was encouraged to give Kikuchi a chance to be in their ninth, as he joins the pitching Kevin Gaussman, José Berríos, Ross Stripling, Alek Manoah y Hyun Jin Ryu on the pitching staff, so his experience can be used for relief situations. Seventh Entry.
