New A's Signee Wants to be Elly De La Cruz on Offense, Jacob deGrom on Mound

After weeks of speculation about the A's having a deal with Japanese two-way player Shotaro Morii, on Wednesday the deal became official with the start of the new international signing period.

アスレチックスへようこそ！森井翔太郎選手！

(Welcome to the Athletics Shotaro Morii!) pic.twitter.com/dMzh9kGvnk
— Athletics (@Athletics) January 15, 2025

Morii has signed with the A's out of high school, which is an uncommon practice, but could start becoming more common with Morii being the second such player to leave Japan in order to play in the United States in recent months. Stanford freshman slugger Rintaro Sasaki is the otherbig name player to forgo NPB in favor of a more direct path to the big leagues. He is also ranked as the top freshman headed into the 2025 season.

When asked, Morii said that Sasaki's decision did not play a role in his own decision-making process.

Assistant GM Dan Feinstein was on hand for the Zoom call with the media after the deal became official, and made sure to point out in his opening statement that Morii will indeed continue to be a two-way player, manning shortstop as well as pitching.

A's on SI asked Feinstein what the plan could look like in terms of innings in the field and on the mound for the upcoming season as we sit here in January.

"The good thing is, we're still in January, so we have some time to figure it out. We're having those discussions internally with a bunch of different departments within player development to figure out what's best to keep him healthy, to keep him on the mound, and to allow him to play shortstop."

Feinstein also confirmed that Morii would be starting his pro career in the Arizona Complex League before landing at one of the A's lower minors affiliates. Morii hopes to be in the big leagues within three years, which just so happens to be when the A's hope to have their proposed Las Vegas ballpark opening up in 2028.

Baseball America had this to say of the A's new two-way star and his chances of sticking at both positions: "He shows the hand-eye coordination to produce a low swing-and-miss rate and the bat speed to flash home run power to his pull side.

"Morii has a good chance to stay at shortstop, where he’s a good athlete with smooth actions and a plus arm. Staying a two-way player at shortstop and pitcher would be difficult, but Morii does have legitimate talent on the mound, where he can reach 94 mph and shows feel for both his slider and splitter."

The A's believe that the fact that they see Morii as both a position player and a pitcher was a selling point in their favor, and one of the reasons that helped him land with the Athletics. Morii confirmed this a little later through his interpreter, saying that in discussions with other MLB organizations, he wanted to know if they saw him as a two-way player.

Morii also mentioned that his favorite player is Elly De La Cruz of the Cincinnati Reds, and that he has tried to make his offensive game a little more like Elly's, noting that he's a fast runner and has power with his bat. He's also a fan of De La Cruz's personality. On the pitching side, he wants to be like Jacob deGrom. He didn't go into a ton of details here, but deGrom has won two Cy Young awards and a Rookie of the Year, so that's a pretty good pick.

The A's new signee is currently in Arizona, but will be flying back home to Japan in a couple of weeks. The hope is that he will return to Arizona around the beginning of March, with Spring Training in full swing.

According to MLB Pipeline, the deal is worth $1,510,500.