The Seattle Mariners have made their pitch to Hiroki Kuroda. Now they are waiting to see whether the Japanese ace will do the same for them next season.
Mariners general manager Bill Bavasi and manager John McLaren led a contingent to Japan this week that met with Kuroda and tried to persuade that country's top free-agent pitcher to sign with Seattle.
"The Mariners are interested in Kuroda and have just returned to Seattle from Japan where they met with our client," agent Joe Urbon wrote in an e-mail on Wednesday.
PHOTO: AP
Kuroda, a 32-year-old right-hander, would fill one of the Mariners' biggest offseason needs. He was 12-8 with a 3.56 ERA in 26 starts last season for the Hiroshima Carp of the Central League. The previous season he had a league-best 1.85 ERA. The year before that he led the Central League with 15 victories.
In 11 seasons with Hiroshima, he is 103-89 with a 3.69 ERA.
Bavasi and McLaren no doubt emphasized to Kuroda the opportunity to play with countrymen Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle's superstar outfielder and franchise cornerstone, and Kenji Johjima, a catcher who would ease Kuroda's transition into US Major League Baseball. Johjima has one season remaining on a US$16.5 million, three-year contract.
The Mariners have an established infrastructure for their Japanese stars to handle the daily swarm of media that follow their every move, another possible attraction for Kuroda. Seattle has two interpreters who travel with the team, are on the field with Suzuki and Johjima during pregame drills and handle interview requests.
Seattle may have competition in signing Kuroda, largely because he is not subject to the expensive posting system that the Boston Red Sox had to go through to sign Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Chicago Cubs are thought to be interested, but Kuroda has said he would prefer to play on the West Coast.
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen has become the first female player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the third and final round of the league’s draft on Monday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship earlier this month. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament’s most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
RSS