After the Red Sox never got a meeting with Japanese two-way player Shohei Ohtani, who went on to have a rookie of the year season with the Angels by accomplishing things that only Babe Ruth had done in the past, their interest is likely to be lower on this year's free-agent prize from Japan, lefty Yusei Kikuchi, a pitcher only.
With a Red Sox rotation pretty well set and competing with other bidders to retain free agent Nathan Eovaldi, the Sox' priorities are likely elsewhere. Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said earlier this month at the GM meetings that Boston has scouted Kikuchi, who is represented by Scott Boras.
Kikuchi, 27, went 14-4 with a 3.08 ERA for the Seibu Lions. He'll be posted to Major League Baseball teams starting Dec. 3, allowing him to start negotiating with teams for 30 days. Under the new posting system, the Lions would be compensated by the MLB team that signs Kikuchi based on the total value of his contract (20 percent for the first $25 million, 17.5 percent for the next $25M and another 15 percent if the deal exceeds $50M.
Last year, the Angels landed Ohtani for the bargain price of a $2.315-million signing bonus, plus a $20-million posting fee to the Nippon-Ham Fighters, his former Japanese team.
After he got out of high school in 2009, he met with the Red Sox and Yankees and considered bypassing the Japanese baseball draft and signing as a free agent. The Yankees are also among the MLB teams who have scouted him recently.
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