Why did it take two decades before the Nationals signed their first free agent from Asia?
“That market is a market that is built on relationships,” former general manager Mike Rizzo said. “You can’t go down there and just pick and choose a guy you want to scout and try and sign him. That market, I dabbled in it when I was with Arizona a few times. And here, we’ve tried at several Asian players. And it’s just … you’re always on the outside looking in, because you don’t have the network there, the groundwork there, that you need to have to create these relationships.”
Rizzo said this in January, shortly after signing Shinnosuke Ogasawara to a two-year, $3.5 million contract. It was significant news, not so much because of the actual player who was signed, but because it marked the first Japanese free agent signed by the Nats since they arrived in town in 2005.
Rizzo, of course, is no longer GM of the franchise. And in a bit of irony, Ogasawara made his major league debut (and trailed 4-0 before recording an out) hours before Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez were fired.
The left-hander went on to make one more start, then made 21 relief appearances in August and September, ultimately completing his rookie season with a gaudy 6.98 ERA and 1.552 WHIP. Paul Toboni’s new front office wound up removing the left-hander from the 40-man roster, outrighting him to Triple-A Rochester, where he’ll likely be the highest-paid player on the roster in 2026.
The idea of the Ogasawara signing, of course, was to finally create a real presence in Asia, perhaps leading to more prominent signings in future years. Which raises an obvious question: Does Toboni intend to keep pursuing players from the region and become a real player there?
“I’ve said it from the start: We want to fight all battles in the battlefield, whether it’s the international market, waivers, minor league free agency, whatever it might be,” the new president of baseball operations said last week at the Winter Meetings. “We don’t want to be removed from any of these marketplaces. In the short-term, it’s a little bit more difficult, just because going about valuing those players is inherently more difficult, unless you have a really tight process set up. So we’ll work on really tightening that up in the next few months. But yeah, we want to be involved, and we’re excited to be.”
It's been a whirlwind two-plus months for Toboni since he was hired, and his focus has been on building a revamped front office, hiring manager Blake Butera and filling out his coaching staff. There are still plenty more positions that need to be filled (especially in player development), not to mention players to be acquired, before pitchers and catchers report two months from now.
Given all that, the Japanese market doesn’t appear to be high on the Nationals’ to-do list this winter. Which is a shame, because this winter’s potential class of free agents is one of the deepest on record, headlined by corner infielders Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto and right-handers Tatsuya Imai and Kona Takahashi.
They can’t all sign with the Dodgers – at least, you’d like to believe that – so perhaps this was the year for another franchise to swoop in and make long-awaited inroads in Japan.
Toboni certainly seems to believe in the importance of establishing a real presence in Asia. The Red Sox signed a number of Japanese players during his decade with the organization, most recently outfielder Masataka Yoshida (who received a five-year, $90 million deal in December 2022).
But as Rizzo correctly pointed out last winter, it’s not as simple as identifying a player you want, then outbidding others for his services. The process is far more complicated, with teams scouting promising young players for years before they’re posted by their NPB clubs. Relationships must be built with players, NPB clubs and agents before there’s any realistic shot of signing someone.
Rizzo, who took advantage of his prior relationship with Ogasawara’s agent – Bryan Minniti, his assistant GM with the Nats from 2010-14 – to sign the lefty, hoped that move might finally get the ball rolling in the right direction. Toboni must now start the process all over himself. And given everything else he’s currently consumed with, it may be a while before that can happen.
“It’s probably not going to be as immediate as some of these bigger (hurdles),” he said. “We’re not going to prioritize it over filling our other leadership positions in player development or the major league staff, or whatever it might be. But it is something we want to have in a really good spot, I think, by this time next year. It’s going to take a little bit of time. But I want to at least start thinking about it sooner rather than later.”