A former Texas Rangers pitcher has spent the past three seasons playing in Japan.
This winter, though, he may attempt a comeback to MLB.
That’s the latest news on the right-hander Kohei Arihara, reported by Yahoo Japan.
Arihara has spent the past three seasons with the SoftBank Hawks in Nippon Professional Baseball.
He pitched for the Rangers in 2021 and 2022. In the first season, he had a 6.64 ERA. In the second, it was 9.45.
Arihara had come to MLB originally from Japan. He had thrown his first six professional seasons with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.
His contract with the Rangers, signed five years ago, was for two years and $6.2 million, and he didn’t live up to that at all.
Arihara’s time stateside was also damaged by a long injury absence after an aneurysm was found in his shoulder.
In the last three seasons in Japan, Arihara had a combined sub-3.00 ERA.
He’s 33 years old now, but has gone more than 175 innings each of the last two seasons, so it seems Arihara could be an innings eater if he returns to MLB.
It’s not a given, and a team would have to be interested, but he’d likely be worth a flier for a team that needs starting pitching depth.
