Ryosuke Kikuchi To Stay In Japan

Japanese infielder Ryosuke Kikuchi won’t be coming to the majors in 2020. Kikuchi’s Nippon Professional Baseball team- the Hiroshima Carp- posted him Dec. 3, which made him a chance to sign with a big league club through Jan. 2. But Kikuchi announced the coming week that he’ll remain in his homeland, according to Sanspo( hat tip-off to Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker ).

” The sell moved slowly, so I took the decision that it would be better to inform the team early that I would bide ,” Kikuchi said.” I was genuinely torn .”

Kikuchi spent the previous eight years as a member of the Carp, with whom he developed a strong defensive reputation at second base. The soon-to-be 30 -year-old’s offense hasn’t quite been up to par, though, as evidenced by his. 271/.315 /. 391 line across 4,695 plateful looks in NPB.

Unfortunately for Kikuchi, his lack of offensive prowess no doubt operated against him as he tried to find a major league deal. Moreover, it surely didn’t help Kikuchi’s make that he was an unproven commodity in a free-agent class of second basemen that’s loaded with familiar calls. Starlin Castro, Brian Dozier, Ben Zobrist, Neil Walker, Jason Kipnis, Brock Holt, Scooter Gennett, Asdrubal Cabrera and Wilmer Flores are just some of the veteran second basemen which remain without contracts as the brand-new year nears.

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