12:06 PM
04/19/24
04/19/24
May 29, 2019
Passan: How a 19-year-old prospect is turning the MLB draft upside down: 19 year old prospect, Carter Stewart, has opted to begin his professional baseball career in Japan instead of making the long, hard slog through MLB's minor league system. Why? Seven million reasons why. It would be interesting if the professional Japanese baseball league were to loosen their rules on foreign players especially if the teams are willing to put up millions of dollars to top prospects around the world.
Tatsuno was drafted an amazing SIX times.
There is no info on his Japanese playing numbers, but his minor league numbers in Norht America were not good.
posted by grum@work at 06:24 PM on May 29, 2019
Carter Stewart is not the first US player to have taken this step. In about 1980, University of Hawaii's Derek Tatsuno, a dominant right handed pitcher, opted to play professional baseball in Japan after having been drafted by the San Diego Padres. This move might have been prompted by cultural factors as much as financial, since he was of Japanese ethnic heritage. I cannot easily find more information about his career in Japan, but my memory is that it did not go well. He was later drafted by the Chicago White Sox, and pitched in their minor league system for a few years. If Stewart were to ask me (which I doubt he would), I would suggest that he correspond with Tatsuno before he makes his decision.