Dodgers keep adding to rich history of Japanese stars

Major League Baseball and its fans are no strangers to the ongoing phenomenon that is Japanese baseball and the players who got their start across the globe from where they would later become household names.

One of them, two-way marvel Shohei Ohtani, has even become the highest-paid player in the history of the sport. Another, 25-year-old ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, has agreed to a deal (per a source) that would make him the highest-paid pitcher in MLB history in terms of total guaranteed dollars.

That both agreements are with the Dodgers is fitting in more ways than one. Not only have Ohtani and Yamamoto found spots on a high-priced, star-studded roster, they'll also be joining a franchise that has already played host to some of the most talented Japanese ballplayers in MLB history.

But the Dodgers are hardly the only club with strong ties to Japan and Nippon Professional Baseball. Here's a look at seven teams that boast rich histories of Japanese-born stars, sorted by combined WAR, per FanGraphs.

Mariners (11 total players from Japan; 79.3 combined fWAR)
Key players: Ichiro Suzuki, Hisashi Iwakuma, Kazuhiro Sasaki

Ichiro is a man who needs no introduction, but we'll give him one anyway. He played 28 seasons of professional baseball from 1992-2019, the last 19 of which were spent in MLB, where he made 10 consecutive All-Star appearances from 2001-10. He remains one of just two players in Major League history to win a Rookie of the Year and league MVP award in the same season, holds the all-time single-season hits record (262 in 2004), and ended his prolific career with 3,089 hits.

However, when Ichiro took home his 2001 AL Rookie of the Year Award, he was the second consecutive Mariner to do so -- the first was Sasaki, who spent four seasons in Seattle's bullpen, posting a 3.14 ERA with a franchise-record 129 saves. Iwakuma, Shigetoshi Hasegawa and current Blue Jay Yusei Kikuchi each had All-Star campaigns of their own with the Mariners.

Dodgers (10 players; 55.1 fWAR)
Key players: Hideo Nomo, Kenta Maeda, Hiroki Kuroda

When Yamamoto takes the mound in a Dodgers uniform, he'll be the latest in a line of some of the most successful Japanese pitchers to ever make the journey to MLB. (Ohtani isn't expected to pitch until 2025.) Nomo, still the most prolific Japanese-born pitcher in Major League history, remains the only pitcher ever to throw a no-hitter at Coors Field, which he did in 1996, a year in which the park set the all-time record for the highest single-season ballpark ERA in Major League history (7.06). Maeda, Kuroda, Kazuhisa Ishii and Takashi Saito also began successful MLB careers with the Dodgers.

Ohtani will find slightly less competition on the other side of the ball in his Dodgers career; as of 2023, Dave Roberts, with his 302 games played, remains the longest-tenured Japanese-born position player in franchise history.

Roberts, who was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and American father before later relocating to the United States, has also been the Dodgers' manager since 2016.

Yankees (7 players; 46.8 fWAR)
Key players: Masahiro Tanaka, Hideki Matsui, Hiroki Kuroda

Both Tanaka and Matsui spent seven seasons with the Yankees, being named to two All-Star teams each. Tanaka, who returned to NPB following the abbreviated 2020 season, logged over 1,000 innings in the Majors, all in New York, posting a 3.74 ERA with a career 114 ERA+. Matsui, for his part, hit .292 with a combined 123 OPS+ as a Yankee and was the 2009 World Series MVP. Kuroda, perhaps better known for his career with the Dodgers, turned in three sparkling seasons in pinstripes from 2012-14.

There is one more particularly notable Japanese player in Yankees franchise history, though; when the Mariners made the surprising decision to trade Ichiro in the middle of the 2012 season, it was the Yankees who acquired him, and with whom he collected his 4,000th professional hit between NPB and MLB.

Angels (5 players; 35.8 fWAR)
Key players: Shohei Ohtani, Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Hideki Matsui

Five Japanese-born ballplayers have suited up for the Angels in their history. Of those five, four have been worth a collective 4.0 WAR -- the fifth is Ohtani. And although his Angels career is over after six seasons, that was plenty of time for him to build a remarkable legacy there. In Anaheim, Ohtani was named the 2018 AL Rookie of the Year, made three All-Star teams, won two MVP awards, and re-established the concept of the two-way player in MLB, earning himself a record-setting 10-year, $700 million payout ahead of the 2024 season.

Before Ohtani, Hasegawa was the Angels' longest-tenured Japanese-born pitcher, posting a career 3.85 ERA over five seasons in Anaheim; Hisanori Takahashi also had a pair of solid seasons out of the Angels' bullpen in 2011-12. Matsui, who hit .274 with 21 home runs for the Angels in 2010, was the first (and, until Ohtani, only) Japanese-born position player in franchise history.

Red Sox (10 players; 26.1 fWAR)
Key players: Daisuke Matsuzaka, Koji Uehara, Junichi Tazawa

Matsuzaka, already a six-time NPB All-Star at age 26 (he'd make his seventh All-Star team in 2018, long after the conclusion of his MLB career), was an enormous get for the Red Sox when they signed him in December 2006. In his first Major League season, he finished fourth in the 2007 AL Rookie of the Year race and won his first (and only) World Series ring.

Although Matsuzaka grabbed the most headlines, he's not alone by any stretch of the imagination. Uehara had one of the best seasons by a reliever in MLB history in 2013, pitching to a microscopic 1.09 ERA with 101 strikeouts in 74 1/3 innings, a performance that earned him Cy Young and MVP Award votes and the chance to close out the 2013 World Series. Tazawa, too, had a few sparkling seasons out of the Red Sox bullpen. Hideo Nomo, although better known as a Dodger, threw his second no-hitter in his first Red Sox appearance on April 4, 2001. Dave Roberts played just 45 games in Boston but had what may have been the most important stolen base in the team's history in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Rangers (8 total players; 20.3 fWAR)
Key players: Yu Darvish, Akinori Otsuka, Koji Uehara

The Rangers get a mention for being the club that helped to introduce Darvish, who'd already had an incredible career in the Japan Pacific League, to MLB. In parts of five seasons spent in Texas, Darvish went 52-39 with a 3.42 ERA and a 11.0 K/9 rate.

Mets (14 players; 10.2 fWAR)
Key players: Kodai Senga, Masato Yoshii, Hisanori Takahashi

More Japanese-born players have spent time with the Mets than with any other MLB franchise -- the Mariners, with their 11 Japanese alums, are second -- but the most successful to this point has been No. 14. Senga finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting and seventh in the NL Cy Young race in 2023, the first year of a five-year, $75 million deal.