SF Giants re-sign former NPB star to milb deal with invite to MLB camp
The SF Giants have re-signed left-handed hitting slugger Yoshi Tsutsugo to a minor-league contract that includes an invitation to big-league camp, according to a report by Sankei Sports. The news does not come as a huge surprise since Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi had openly discussed negotiations with Tsutsugo, and suggested he would return to the organization. Tsutsugo inked a minor-league deal with the Giants in August of last season and hit .296/.451/.537 in the upper minors.
Pirates 1B Yoshi Tsutsugo prepares for a defensive play against the Reds. (2022)
Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports
According to Sankei Sports' report, Tsutsugo declined lucrative offers from at least one Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team to return to the Giants and attempt to reestablish himself in the major leagues. Sankei also reported that there was a "high possibility" that the Giants were going to call up Tsutsugo for the last week of the season before he was sidelined by a fractured left thumb on September 23rd.
Tsutsugo starred in Japan with the Yokohama DeNA Bay Stars from 2010-2019, hitting .285/.382/.528 with 205 home runs in exactly 4,000 plate appearances. Following a stretch from 2016-2019 that featured a 45, he decided to make the jump to MLB. He signed a two-year, $12 million contract with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Heading to the majors for the unprecedented pandemic-shortened 2020 season surely made things even more difficult for Tsutsugo than they already were. Unsurprisingly, he struggled to find his footing. Playing nearly every day with Tampa between designated hitter, left field, and third base, he hit .198/.314/.395 with eight home runs in 51 games. After struggling even more mightily in 2021, he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a player to be named later.
Tsutsugo was even less productive during his short stint in Southern Carlifornia and was released before the end of the season. Shortly after his release, Tsutsugo joined the Pittsburgh Pirates organization on a minor-league deal. He quickly received a call-up and, for the first time in his big-league career, he was productive. In 43 games to finish the 2021 campaign, he hit .268/.347/.535 with eight doubles, eight home runs, 15 walks, and 33 strikeouts in 144 plate appearances.
Returning to Pittsburgh in 2022, Tsutsugo was unable to pick up where he left off. While he had an explosive week in the minor leagues, the left-handed power hitter posted a .478 OPS across 50 games before the Pirates designated him for assignment, eventually releasing him. He finished the season with the Toronto Blue Jays Triple-A affiliate, hitting .265/.381/.459 in 29 games, before inking a deal with Texas during the offseason.
Tsutsugo was solid at Triple-A for the Rangers, hitting .249/.380/.432, but did not see a path to playing time in Texas. However, with teams dealing with MLB instituting a 180-player cap, he was unable to find a landing spot. So, relegated to the Atlantic League, he absolutely crushed opposing pitching, highlighted by seven home runs in 12 games before first signing with the Giants.
It remains difficult to imagine Tsutsugo cracking the Giants Opening Day roster as it is currently constructed. The team has plenty of corner bats and is actively courting Shohei Ohtani. With that said, if the Giants fall short for Ohtani, there are very few left-handed designated hitter options available in free agency. In fact, the best one is Joc Pederson, who was the SF Giants designated hitter from 2022-2023 and seems unlikely to re-sign. That could create an avenue for Yoshi Tsutsugo to find a role on the big-league team.
