A's two-way prospect Shotaro Morii gets first Bowman auto
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After receiving the largest international signing bonus ever given to a Japanese born player, two-way prospect Shotaro Morri is set to get his first Bowman Chrome autograph in 2025 Bowman Chrome. The product release is scheduled for September.
JUST IN: 18-year-old two-way phenom Shotaro Morii will have his first EVER baseball cards in 2025 Bowman Chrome 🇯🇵 🔥 pic.twitter.com/XsW04HwK2G
— Topps (@Topps) August 11, 2025
Instead of heading to the NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) Draft, Morri wanted to come right to the big leagues. The A's gave the 18-year old $1.51 million, a record for an amateur from Japan. Though typically Japanese nationals stay and play a few years in the NPB before moving to the MLB, but lately more and more from the island country are choosing other ways to get to the United States for baseball. Rintaro Sasaki, another Japan native, chose to play for the Stanford Cardinals.
Morri currently plays for the ACL Athletics in rookie ball. He's hitting a modest .258 with three home runs and 27 RBI in 43 games. Although not crushing the skin of the ball, for an 18 year old who is spending his first few months away from his home country, he's fairing well amongst his peers.
His MLB prospect profile says his fastball has been clocked at 95 mph and sits around the 91-92 mph range. He has a devastating splitter, a true 12-6 curveball and a good slider. His profile also points out, that having been pitching for only two years, his arm is pretty fresh compared to most 18 year olds pitching in professional baseball.
On defense when he's not pitching, he's listed as a shortstop with the potential to move to third. His prowess for pitching power could allow the move to the hot corner as his frame fills out.
His estimate time of arrival in the big leagues is 2028, according to MLB.
Bowman Chrome is estimated to be released on September 19, 2025. The box includes two Chrome autographs.
After graduating from the University of North Dakota in 2008, Cole worked as an advertising copywriter until shifting to print journalism a few years later. Managing three weekly newspapers in the Dakotas, Cole won numerous awards from the North Dakota Newspaper Association including Best of the Dakotas and, their top award, General Excellence. He returned to collecting in 2021 and has since combined his passion for writing with his love of cards. Cole also writes for the Sports Cards Nonsense newsletter and has made guest appearances on multiple sports card collecting podcasts including Sports Cards Nonsense, and the Eephus Baseball Cards Podcast. IG: coleryan411 X: @colebenz