Of all the players in camp for the Oakland A's at spring training, none has created more buzz the past week than Shintaro Fuijnami.
Fuji, as he likes to be called, arrives with a lot of fanfare after spending the past decade in Japan. The hype started when he was in high school and viewed as a rival to Shohei Ohtani, as the two faced off in the nation's famed Koshien tournament before going pro in 2013.
On Thursday, A's manager Mark Kotsay revealed to reporters in Arizona that Fujinami will make his Oakland spring debut on Tuesday against the Angels, who will trot out Ohtani as a starter.
During his introductory press conference last month, Fuji told reporters he was looking forward to the opportunity to face Ohtani again in America.
"No doubt about it. I'm very excited," Fujinami said, via translator Issei Kamada. "We're the same age. Obviously, he's one of the best players in the world. For the Japanese fans, it'll be very exciting for us to play against each other. I'm very excited."
While Ohtani emerged as a world-class star before signing with the Angels in 2018, Fuji's career derailed a bit after he made four straight NPB All-Star teams out of high school. After lowering his walk rate in 2022, Fuji asked to be posted by the Hanshin Tigers, and the A's took a flier on him by agreeing to a one-year, $3.25 million contract.
So far in camp, Fuji has impressed his teammates with his six-pitch arsenal that includes a two-seam fastball, four-seam fastball, splitter, cutter, slider and curveball.
"It's really good," catcher Shea Langeliers said of Fuji's stuff, via A's cast. "He's got some different variations of pitches that he's gonna throw when he wants to throw 'em. It's gonna be exciting."
Asked recently to pick his favorite pitch, Mark Kotsay played it safe.
"All of 'em," Kotsay said, via the A's media relations. "I like the sweeping breaking ball, I like the split, life on the fastball. Just a matter of him being able to command his pitches. As is in pitching, right? It's really about throwing strikes and pounding the zone. He has the arsenal to disrupt the timing of hitters and make pitches deceptive."
It should be noted that Fujinami hasn't thrown for more than 107.1 innings since 2018 and that he's set a goal of 140 innings pitched this season, so it's not like the A's are expecting him to be a workhorse.
Heck, it's not even a guarantee Fujinami will make the rotation, as Oakland has a crowded group of starters including veterans Paul Blackburn, James Kaprielian, top prospects Ken Waldichuk and Kyle Muller, along with fellow free-agent signee Drew Rucinski and others like Adrian Martinez, JP Sears and Adam Oller.
