The Rangers agree with the right Kohei Arihara, reports Ken Rosenthal of Atlético (Twitter link) It is a two-year contract in the $ 6-7 million range, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (via Twitter)
Arihara, 28, has spent the past six seasons with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. In 836 career entries at the highest level in Japan, Arihara compiled an ERA 3.74 with 6.7 K / 9 against 2.1 BB / 9. He has been especially productive for the past two years. Arihara posted a tiny 2.46 ERA with the best career of 8.8 K / 9 in 2019. Last season, he achieved a 3.46 mark with 7.2 K / 9 in 132.2 entries.
On the heels of Arihara’s peak season in 2019, Jason Coskrey of Baseball America noted that the right-hander works in the 90s and relies primarily on his fastball, shift and slider. Arihara has up to seven separate shots in his arsenal, however, and Coskrey notes that he is adept at using his side to keep his opponent’s batters off balance. He also has a long history of pitching attacks, having issued no more than 2.2 walks for nine entries launched in any of the past five seasons of the NPB.
Arihara is not known especially for raw oppressive things, and this has been confirmed by his relatively low strikeout rates. Shun Yamaguchi, who signed a similar contract with the Blue Jays in the last off-season, has consistently posted heavier total eliminations over his time than Arihara. Also have Tomoyuki Sugano, the high-profile NPB starter available to MLB teams via the posting system this winter. This may suggest that Arihara is better suited for the back of the rotation, although he imagines having a decent opportunity to enter Texas.
Kyle Gibson and Jordan Lyles presumably will try to recover from the dark seasons of 2020. Dane Dunning will certainly get a rotation job after coming from the White Sox in the Lance Lynn trade. There is a lot of uncertainty beyond (and even between) this trio, however. Kolby Allard was eliminated last season and has not yet established himself as a major caliber holder. Kyle Cody, who never worked more than five innings, was the only other player still on the list to start several games for Texas last season.
In addition to Arihara’s salary, the Rangers owe Fighters a clearance fee under the terms of the MLB-NPB posting system. Fighters will receive a sum equal to 20 percent of the contract value. Depending on the specific terms of the contract, this would put the postage fee in the range of $ 1.2 million to 1.4 million. Texas’ total disbursement is about $ 7.5 million, hears Evan Grant from the Dallas Morning News (via Twitter)
The Red Sox and Padres would have been the other finalists in the Arihara bid, whose posting window was set to expire tomorrow. San Diego and Boston will now have to go elsewhere in their search for additional depth of rotation.