Right -handed Takahiro Norimoto Van de Rakuten Eagles in Nippon’s Japanese professional baseball is planning to practice his international free agent rights and to gauge both MLB and NPB teams this winter, according to a report from Yahoo Japan (hat tip for yakyu cosmopolitan). He hired the Wasserman Agency to represent him in conversations with Major League teams, according to the report. The now-34-year-old Righty moved to the Bullpen in 2024 after a long and successful run as a starting pitcher. He has spent the last two seasons as the Eagles closer.
Norimoto is older than most players who make the transition from NPB to MLB. He will be 35 in December. The right -handed one comes from a fun year with the Eagles, after he had been thrown to a 3.02 ERA with 16 Saves, four holds and only two blown saves. His strike output of 17.2% and 8.4% running speed do not stand out exactly, although Norimoto has still shown the possibility to have his heating in the reach of 97 mph walking since last season moved to the Bullpen. He also kept almost 50% of the beaten balls of his opponents on the ground last season.
Norimoto has not had any problems in the past missing bats. He led NPB in Strikeouts for five consecutive years, from 2014-18, while working from the rotation of the Eagles. He threw 1838 career -inings in NPB and registered a 3.12 ERA while he won 120 games, saved another 48 and closed almost 24% of his opponents (at a running speed of 6.3%).
Due to the fact that Norimoto is at least 25 and has at least six full seasons of professional experience, he is exempt from the international bonuspool structure of Major League Baseball. The fact that he has more than nine seasons in NPB means that he is also exempt from the posting system. If he does indeed exercise those international free agent rights, he would be free to sign at a club for a big league or minor League-Deal-on condition that MLB teams are sufficiently interested in the former Pacific League Rookie of the year and six times NPB All-Star.
Although we don’t see too many players jumping to MLB in their mid-thirty, Orioles Right-Hander Tomoyuki Sugano Exactly that in 2025. Last year, the Sugano Rookie season was in MLB and arrived in his own age 35 campaign. Sugano of course did this as a starter. Former Red Sox Righty Hirokazu Sawamura and former D-Backs/Mariners Righty Yoshihisa Hirano are more recent examples of relievers who make relatively successful movements to MLB in their mid -thirty; The first signed at Boston prior to his age 33 season in 2022, while the latter signed at Arizona prior to the 2018 campaign, his age-34 season.
Main class clubs are always looking for affordable bullpen -help, so there can still be interest in Norimoto, even if he is not so coveted at the age of 35 -if he might have been in his physical peak. As a rotation size of former right -handed Yankees Masahiro Tanaka Before Tanaka’s first three seasons back in Japan after his run in the Bronx, Norimoto certainly chose the brain of the former MLB All-Star about moving to the Majors in the past. It is not entirely certain whether he will throw in North -America next year, but he is an interesting Wild Card participant in the Bullpen market out of season.
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