There is a Japanese player I had never heard of before last week being posted and the Giants should sign him
This is a VERY strongly held opinion of mine as of whenever I heard his name for the first time
The Hiroshima Carp will be posting star outfielder Seiya Suzuki this offseason, and every major league team will be able to acquire him. All it will take is some money going to the Carp, and more money going to Suzuki, and also convincing him that he should come play for This Team instead of Any Of Those Other Teams. The money, one presumes, would help with that, but so would having a good organization, and winning games, and all sorts of things that appeal to free agents of all national origins.
Here is my opinion: The Giants should try to sign Seiya Suzuki so he plays baseball for them.
Have I gone through the stats on Suzuki? Absolutely. I looked at his Baseball Reference page and noticed that the numbers on it were big, and therefore he’s a good baseball player and will continue to be a good baseball player forever. I know it sounds wild, but guess who else had good statistics as a young player? That’s right: Barry Bonds. The comparisons are inescapable, honestly.
But Farhan’s front office can apparently find good players anywhere. Why, specifically, am I so interested in Seiya Suzuki? Let me sum it up:
It would be cool
It would be fun
It would, like, help the Giants expand their reach in foreign markets or some shit, I don’t know, this one is just here so people don’t think I’m stupid
As you can see, the case is airtight.
I hope this doesn’t come off as weird, but Japanese players are fun, even when they’re not all that good. Maybe you remember Nori Aoki, who in 2015 hit .287/.353/.380 for the Giants over 392 plate appearances. He was delightful. Sometimes he fell down! Look at the photos Grant embedded in this article. Look at them! You can’t argue with that.
You, of course, remember Tsuyoshi Shinjo for being cool as hell in his one year with the Giants, and that is accurate. He was not, however, particularly good. Shinjo hit .238/.294/.370 in an, uh, extreme offensive era, and no amount of great defense can make up for that. But on the other hand, he was, as previously mentioned, cool as hell. If you remember the 2002 season, and it is frightening that it wouldn’t be weird to have readers who don’t, you definitely remember his headband and his sense of style and you follow with moderate interest his managerial career in Japan.
You probably don’t remember Kensuke Tanaka. I basically only remember his name, and the fact that he was in a semi-platoon with Jeff Francoeur for a little while, but hey, they can’t all be winners.
Seiya Suzuki would not be a Tanaka, though. He is far more talented than any of the three Japanese Giants outfielders of recent memory, and would command a much higher price. According to an unsourced headline on MLB.com, he is drawing comparisons to Ronald Acuña Jr. A website I’ve never heard of — reliable information! — is throwing out Mookie Betts and Mike Trout. Giants reliever Jay Jackson, who played with Hiroshima for three years, told The Athletic that:
He is an unbelievable talent. I got to play with him when he was younger and he wasn’t as mature as he is now. But even when he was so raw, you could see it: the arm, the quickness that he has, the power that he has, the stroke that he has.
He’s really good, in other words. He’d be by far the best Japanese player to put on a Giants uniform — apologies to Masanori Murakami, who Japan took back when it turned out he was good, so we’ll never know how long his success would have lasted — and would be incredibly exciting to watch. Most importantly for my purposes, I want to see him for entirely irrational reasons. I think he’d be neat. I want the team I root for to be able to get players from all over the country and all over the world, and I want Japanese baseball fans to root for the Giants, and I would appreciate winning a contest for a coveted free agent, for once.
Does it concern me that I have no experience with translating NPB stats to MLB stats? Friends, it does not. I am not a talent scout nor a Fangraphs writer, so I can just assume that one of the best players in Japan would also be one of the best players in America, if given the chance. And I absolutely think the Giants should be the ones to give him that chance.
So go out and sign Suzuki, Mr. Executive Of The Year. I think it would be neat, and also he’s a good player, but let’s focus on that first thing. He’d be fun and different, and also maybe he’s a superstar? Again, though, it would be cool to win the competition for his services. The Giants spent all year winning. They should do it one more time.