The Washington Nationals surprised baseball today when they inked a two-year deal for Japanese left-hander Shinnosuke Ogasawara. This is the first time in team history that the Nats signed a player directly from Asia. The team has had Asian born players on their roster before and most notably with Chien-Ming Wang from Taiwan. Both Tomo Ohka of Japan, and Sun-Woo Kim from South Korea came to the Nats via their relocation as the Montreal Expos.
As far as Ogasawara’s role on the Nationals roster, he could potentially fit into the backend of the Nationals’ rotation or as a hybrid reliever in the bullpen, to take advantage of his versatility. Ogasawara was an All-Star for the Chunichi Dragons in 2023 and posted a 3.12 ERA over 144 1/3 innings last season. The 27-year-old is not known for having high strikeout totals, but like Wang, is known for inducing groundballs.
The AP reported that Ogasawara signed with the Nats for a total of $3.5 million plus a posting fee of $700,000. The total paid-out will be $4.2 million, and only the $3.5 million will be part of the CBT payroll at $1.75 million a year. That brings the Nats’ 2025 CBT payroll up to $125.5 million.
Of note, Ogasawara is repped by agents at WME, and Rizzo has had a long relationship with WME’s Bryan Minniti who used to be the assistant general manager with the Nationals from 2009-2014.
Ogasawara was not subject to the international bonus pool system, and the rules allowed him to be treated like an MLB free agent because he is an international player over 25 years old with at least six professional seasons. MLBTR projected that Ogasawara would receive a two-year $12MM deal in free agency. If he received that deal, the posting fee would have been $2.4 million.
To clear space for Ogasawara on the roster, the Nationals DFA’d left-hander Joe La Sorsa. The 40-man roster is full.
The posting deadline to sign Ogasawara was today and per MLB Trade Rumors, many teams were interested in the lefty. As a starting pitcher through his career in Japan, he has been working at Driveline’s pitching lab near Seattle, Washington, where he improved his slider and worked on other pitches. Scouts attended closed sessions to view him pitch there.
“Shinnosuke came to us already doing a number of things well. One area for improvement he had identified was upgrading the slider, and he was able to do so quickly. I’m optimistic that his arsenal will take a step forward as a result.”
— said Joel Condreay, a pitching coach at Driveline
With Michael Soroka and Trevor Williams signed to free agent deals, and the young core of MacKenzie Gore and Jake Irvin who are locks for the rotation, it certainly calls into question what the plan is with DJ Herz and Mitchell Parker as well as Cade Cavalli who is returning from his UCL rehab. Additionally, the Nationals have Jackson Rutledge as a starter, and Josiah Gray could return at the end of the 2025 season from his UCL rehab.
Beyond those starters, the Nationals have expected Triple-A depth of Joan Adon, Brad Lord, Andrew Alvarez, Tyler Stuart, Andry Lara, and Chase Solesky with Lara on the 40-man roster. As non-roster invitees to big league camp in Spring Training, Stuart, Lord and Adon all got invites.
As a high school player, Ogasawara was a 2015 1st round pick and made his NPB debut at 18 years old, and went 54-72 with a 3.67 ERA in his career over 1,098 innings across his nine seasons with the Dragons. He also represented Japan in the 2015 U-18 Baseball World Cup, helping his team to a second-place finish.
Obviously this is a wait-and-see as to whether general manager Mike Rizzo makes a trade of one of his starters or converts a starter to the bullpen. Time will tell on this, and if the Nationals do a press conference with Ogasawara, we should learn more.
