The SSG Landers introduced their signing of Japanese pitcher Shota Takeda on Sunday to fill their Asian quota for subsequent season.
The Landers mentioned the 32-year-old right-hander agreed to a one-year contract value $200,000. Takeda had been with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan’s Nippon Skilled Baseball (NPB) since 2012.
Beginning in 2026, golf equipment within the Korea Baseball Group (KBO) will every be allowed to signal an additional participant from an Asian nation or Australia — along with their regular three foreign-born gamers.
The Asian quota participant should have competed in Asia or in Australia within the season instantly earlier than the yr he indicators with a KBO crew. The South Korean league additionally has a $200,000 spending cap on the Asian quota participant, a determine that features wage, signing bonus and any buyout charges paid to the participant’s former crew.
The Landers are the third KBO crew to accumulate an Asian quota participant this offseason, following the Hanwha Eagles and the KT Wiz from Thursday.
Takeda, a first-round decide within the 2011 NPB draft, went 8-1 with a 1.07 ERA in 11 outings as a rookie in 2012. He loved his greatest stretch in 2015-2016, going a mixed 27-14 with a 3.05 ERA. Takeda represented Japan on the 2015 Premier12 and once more on the 2017 World Baseball Basic.
He final pitched within the NPB in 2023, earlier than lacking your complete 2024 season after present process elbow surgical procedure. He returned to the mound this yr and pitched in six video games for the Hawks’ minor league membership within the Western League.
The Landers mentioned their worldwide scouts watched Takeda pitch in particular person in August and located no points with the pitcher’s restoration from elbow operation.
“We imagine Takeda can be part of our beginning rotation straight away,” the Landers mentioned. “He has an impressive work ethic and he generally is a mentor for our younger pitchers.”
The Landers added that Takeda, listed at 187 centimeters on NPB’s web site, throws his fastball from a excessive launch level, and presents a curve-slider-forkball combine as his secondary choice.
The Landers had a stable one-two punch on the prime of their rotation this season with the American duo of Drew Anderson and Mitch White. Anderson completed second total within the KBO with 245 strikeouts — the second-highest single-season complete in league historical past — in simply 171 2/3 innings, together with a 12-7 report and a 2.25 ERA. White, a half-Korean pitcher who missed the early a part of the season resulting from harm, went 11-4 with a 2.87 ERA, and recorded 137 strikeouts in 134 2/3 innings.
