Blue Jays Sign Yusei Kikuchi - $36M/3 Years

[phillipmike]

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[Raider917]

good. i didnt like having to consistently throw out stripling

[phillipmike]

Jays 40 man roster is completely full and we still need a 3B and possibly a backend pen arm. Expect a trade soon

[TR50]

I like this...especially that it is front loaded.

[Ado05]

Hopefully Walker can get something more out of him, because he's just not good enough for this deal.

[Kurtz]

His numbers really tanked after the spider tack ban. Hopefully the Jays know what they're doing on this guy, because this has the feel of Tanner Roark all over again.

[phillipmike]

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[polo007]

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[Schad]

I'm a bit iffy given the hard contact, but we have had success signing guys who needed to alter their pitch mix, and Kikuchi could be one. His big issue last year was that his cutter got crushed to the tune of a .427 xwOBA. Meanwhile, the ridiculously hard split-change that he throws graded out very well, and he began throwing it more last year.

I could see the Jays trying to get him to pitch more north-south, with more 4-seamers and split-changes, with the cutter relegated to the fringes rather than being his most-used pitch.

[polo007]

Blue Jays, Yusei Kikuchi agree to 3-year, $36 million deal: Source - The Athletic

What he brings to the Blue Jays

Kaitlyn McGrath, Blue Jays beat writer: Kikuchi is coming off an interesting 2021 season. His first half earned him an All-Star selection but he struggled in the back half and eventually lost his spot in the rotation with the Mariners. Still, Kikuchi can hit the mid-90s with his fastball and he has secondary pitches that can be weapons, too. Finding consistency will be key to his success and if he can do that, he’ll give Toronto a solid starter to round out their rotation.

The fit is nice, too. The Blue Jays aren’t afraid of taking on a bit of a pitching project, especially when there is so much potential in the arm.

Toronto's projected rotation

McGrath: Kikuchi comes in likely as the team’s projected fifth starter. He completes a rotation that includes Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Alek Manoah and Hyun Jin Ryu. Expect Gausman to lead the way as the staff ace, while Berríos is as reliable as they come and will give the team a strong one-two punch at the top. Manoah will try to build off his stellar rookie year, while Ryu is an experienced veteran.

Kikuchi is also left-handed, giving Toronto the second lefty they needed. Nate Pearson and Ross Stripling provide rotation depth.

Remaining priorities this offseason

McGrath: With starting pitching in good shape, the Blue Jays' focus will likely shift to trying to find an infielder to play either second or third base. Remember, they’re trying to replace Marcus Semien, so they’re looking for an impact player. The club already has one of the best offenses in baseball but they could use a left-handed bat, as well. It’s possible they continue to look to add to their bullpen, too.

[Hottie McShotty]

Kevin Gausman
José Berríos
Alek Manoah
Hyun Jin Ryu
Yusei Kikuchi

[Cyrus]

Contract is a bit iffy, who had a wild up and down season. But atleast it's front loaded, so if he tanks, the remainning two years won't be a huge loss. This is kind of got the "Diesel" Tanner Roark written all over it, hopefully it doesn't backfire like that did, and we have to eat his contract.

Wonder if this takes us out from a Bat... we clearly need a 3rd/2nd basemen to replace the production of Semiens.

Wonder if we are gonna trade Lourdes + prospects for something...

[bluerap23]

Pretty nice signing to solidify the rotation. A little expensive and would have preferred 2 years to 3, but I guess if it works out that 3rd year will be great value. Hopefully he turns in to Ray and not Roark. Our starting rotation is incredibly deep now. Just need one more bat and we good.

[polo007]

Blue Jays fill out starting rotation with signing of left-hander Yusei Kikuchi – The Athletic

Colleague Aaron Gleeman wrote this on Kikuchi, who he ranked as the 19th-best free-agent pitcher this offseason: “Some days he looks like an impact arm, pairing a mid-90s fastball with two good off-speed pitches for 210 strikeouts in 204 innings since 2020. However, his velocity wavers from start to start and he leaves far too many fat pitches over the plate to get clobbered.”

Kikuchi’s fastball averaged 95 mph last year, with a 30.3 percent whiff rate. He has a cutter and slider, as well, that he uses often. He’s also got a developing changeup he went to just 10 percent of the time in 2021, but which held batters to a .176 batting average with a 39.6 percent whiff rate. The hard hits he allowed — the average exit velocity off him was 91.9 mph, among the worst in baseball — gives pause, but he’s also among the top starters at generating groundballs. The tools are there to be tinkered with.

Indeed, given his struggles last year and beyond, Kikuchi can be labeled as a project. And while it’s not fair to suggest Blue Jays pitching coaches have some kind of magical touch just because they’ve had recent success turning around downward trends with pitchers like Ray and Matz, at least we know the Blue Jays organization has identified projects worth betting on. Kikuchi, who has a 4.97 ERA over 70 career starts, has the upside of an impact arm but hasn’t been able to fully unlock it. The Blue Jays hope they can help him finally do that.

In the event he falters, Kikuchi presumably has the stuff to pitch out of the bullpen and Pearson — assuming he’s not traded — could be ready to take his place in the rotation. Perhaps the internal competition will even be a net positive for the club, pushing all its pitchers to perform to their best to keep their spots in the rotation.

With another starter checked off the front office’s to-do list, the focus will be finding an infielder, with a third baseman the club’s biggest remaining need. The club could stand to add a left-handed bat, as well, and while the Blue Jays reportedly signed reliever Andrew Vasquez to a big-league deal, per a Sportsnet report, the bullpen could use always use more reinforcements, too.

Given the nature of this offseason, those acquisitions will spill into spring training. But, for now, at least the Blue Jays’ rotation picture looks complete.

The 2022 guide to ranking MLB’s top 25 free-agent starting pitchers - The Athletic

19. Yusei Kikuchi, LHP

Last team: Mariners

Age: 31

Kikuchi is just five months removed from being an All-Star, but he turned back into a pumpkin in the second half with a 5.98 ERA. Some days he looks like an impact arm, pairing a mid-90s fastball with two good off-speed pitches for 210 strikeouts in 204 innings since 2020. However, his velocity wavers from start to start and he leaves far too many fat pitches over the plate to get clobbered.

[dagger]

Not worried about the contract. This is the year to absorb such a front load, before arbs and extensions for current players really start to have an impact. If the third year is a drag, and there is a prospect ready to assume his place at an entry level salary, he can be DFA'd and the stranded money issue will be no big deal.

Also, Ryu will be off the books by the third year.

[Lateral Quicks]

Not a terrible contract for a guy with his tools. We're paying for upside here rather than past performance. Let's see what Walker can do with him.

Well, the front office has really bolstered the starting rotation. Things are definitely looking up for the team, even after losing Semien and Ray. Next up in needs is a left-handed bat.

[TR50]

Kevin Gausman
José Berríos
Alek Manoah
Hyun Jin Ryu
Yusei Kikuchi

Pretty wild considering at the start of last year we had the following:

Ryu
Ray (unproven)
Pearson
Roark
I cannot remember

Even then, we finished the year with a super strong rotation.

[phillipmike]

Kevin Gausman
José Berríos
Alek Manoah
Hyun Jin Ryu
Yusei Kikuchi

Pretty wild considering at the start of last year we had the following:

Ryu
Ray (unproven)
Pearson
Roark
I cannot remember

Even then, we finished the year with a super strong rotation.

Last year Ray was hurt and didn’t make the opening day roster. It was Ryu, Roark, Matz, Zeuch and Stripling I think.

The year before it was Ryu, Roark, Thornton, Anderson and Yamaguchi.

[polo007]

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[polo007]

Why the Blue Jays believe Yusei Kikuchi has a ‘bright future’; GM says search for a position player underway – The Athletic

What attracted Kikuchi to the organization, he said, was its competitiveness. What attracted the Blue Jays to Kikuchi, according to general manager Ross Atkins, was his durability and his “elite” pitching weapons, including a cut fastball. And despite his uneven results in 2021, the Blue Jays clearly believe they can get the most out of those pitching weapons again.

“What he’s already done is more than enough in this game and we are exceptionally confident in the athlete that he is,” Atkins said. “With every acquisition, we’re always excited about joining with them and hoping that they realize all their potential and feel that it’s rare for someone of Yusei’s caliber to accomplish so much thus far in his career in Japan and here and feel as though that it’s just getting started … that he has, again, a very bright future.”

Under the covered infield at their spring training complex on Tuesday, the Blue Jays held an introductory news conference for the 30-year-old left-hander a day after they’d made his deal official. However, for Kikuchi, his introduction to his new team was already well underway.

Earlier in the day, he threw his first bullpen session during morning workouts. He was paired with Blue Jays catcher Danny Jansen, while pitching coach Pete Walker kept a watchful eye on his newest starter.

“He had good life on his fastball,” Walker said. “I thought he commanded his breaking ball pretty well and got a chance to get a look at his offspeed pitches, split-finger, so it was good to get a chance to see him throw and get a feel for what he does.”

Kikuchi said he had a good idea of what went wrong for him last year and spent his offseason trying to work on it. His two main focuses, he said, were making “minor adjustments in my mechanics and also being more aggressive out on the mound.”

Meanwhile, given the team’s interest in him, Walker had spent a while studying Kikuchi’s pitching. During the Blue Jays’ initial conversations Tuesday, Kikuchi said they talked about pitch usage and the catcher setup as ways that could help him improve, but “we haven’t really gotten into deep conversations yet,” Kikuchi said.

Typically, Walker and the coaching staff like to get to know a new pitcher a little bit and learn what he’s done in the past before they suggest any tinkering. Only a day or so into camp, they’re still in the getting-to-know-him phase with Kikuchi, but Walker said the team has some ideas of how it can help him, too.

“He was an All-Star and he was doing some tremendous things and he’s got a tremendous fastball, good split, good breaking ball,” Walker said. “We have some ideas and some rationale behind our thoughts, of course, but right now, we’re going to get him here, get him comfortable, get him throwing, which we usually do, and then maybe add our two cents at some point.”

Any changes that are suggested will need to be implemented in a quicker time frame than normal. Rather than having potentially part of the offseason and six weeks of camp to work with Kikuchi, Walker has about only three weeks until Opening Day. But the Blue Jays pitching coach said any tweaks for Kikuchi will be simple.

“It’s a little shorter time period, but there’s really nothing drastic there,” Walker said. “I don’t think that’ll be an issue at all.”