Shintaro Fujinami, as Advertised in First Spring Start
The Oakland A's signed 28-year-old right-hander Shintaro Fujinami to a one year, $3.25MM contract in January, and there has been buzz circling him since. On Tuesday, we saw "Fuji" make his Cactus League debut, and he was exactly as advertised.
In the first inning, he struck out the pesky David Fletcher on a 91 mile per hour splitter in the dirt to lead off the game. The second batter, Luis Rengifo, hit a come-backer that hit off Fujinami. The pitcher waived off the training staff and settled in with a man on first.
He struck out Jake Lamb, and then Mickey Moniak popped out to second. Fujinami needed just 13 pitches to get through the first inning.
The second inning included a little more drama. He walked the first three batters of the frame (Jo Adell, Logan O'Hoppe, and Trey Cabbage), loading the bases with nobody out. After a mound visit with A's pitching coach Scott Emerson, Fuji struck out Aaron Whitefield, then got Livan Soto to ground to shortstop Aledmys Díaz, who took it himself to second, then fired over to Ryan Noda at first.
Shintaro Fujinami's final line: 2 IP, hit, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, 39 pitches.
Since he signed with Oakland, we have heard that he has a hard splitter, which he showed off, and that he can hit triple-digits with his fastball. He sat 96-97 with the heater Tuesday. He also utilized a front-door slider when he needed a strike in that second inning.
His lack of command at times was another one of the talking points on Fujinami when he signed, and he showed us what that looks like, too. He wasn't missing by much, but he just wasn't hitting his spots.
Regardless, it sure looked like his stuff will play in the big leagues.
Fujinami and Shohei Ohtani will be compared all season long, and the two just happened to both be making their debuts on Tuesday afternoon in Mesa. In his first ever Spring start, a 23-year-old Ohtani went 1.1 IP, gave up two hits, two runs (one earned), walked one, and struck out two.
In his following start, Ohtani went 1.1 IP, gave up seven hits, seven runs, hit a batter, walked one, and struck out three. Exiting his first camp and heading into the regular season, pundits were saying that Ohtani wouldn't make it in the big leagues. He is now one of the best pitchers, and one of the best hitters, in all of baseball.
With his fastball/splitter combo, Fujinami could turn into a very solid pitcher for the A's in 2023. How his season goes will depend on how well he can command those offerings, and whether he can escape the jams he gets into when his command leaves him. He passed both tests with flying colors on Tuesday afternoon.