The Royals signed a 16-year-old Japanese baseball player:
Kaito Yuki is headed to the Kansas City Royals organization instead of attending high school in Japan.
The 16-year-old pitcher agreed Sunday to a minor league contract with a $322,500 signing bonus. He is thought to be the first Japanese junior high school player to sign with a major league club.
“I wanted to play in the United States as soon as possible, rather than playing high school ball at Koshien Stadium (in Japan’s iconic national championship),” Yuki said in statement issued by the Royals.
Yuki is listed at 6-foot-2, 170 pounds and the right-hander’s fastball has been clocked at 87-88 mph. He was born on May 12, 2002.
Good. There is pressure in Japan to play in country. What I would love to see is MLB teams going after young players like this, and Japan going after elite MLB free agents. That will lead to higher salaries for all players, even out the talent level on both sides of the Pacific, and with hope lead to a real World Series some day.
from baseballmusings.com https://ift.tt/2KIfJnE
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