{"id":53625,"date":"2022-03-12T14:25:46","date_gmt":"2022-03-12T19:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=53625"},"modified":"2022-03-12T14:34:11","modified_gmt":"2022-03-12T19:34:11","slug":"yusei-kikuchi-blue-jays-agree-to-a-three-year-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/03\/12\/yusei-kikuchi-blue-jays-agree-to-a-three-year-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Yusei Kikuchi, Blue Jays Agree to A Three-Year Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yusei Kikuchi is heading to the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2022\/03\/12\/toronto-blue-jays-announce-updated-spring-training-schedule\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>. The left-hander agreed to a three-year, $36 million contract. MLB Insider Jon Heyman was the first to report the news on Twitter. Kikuchi earned his first All-Star nod in 2021 with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/category\/mariners\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Seattle Mariners<\/a>. Before the lockout, Heyman reported that Toronto made a &#8220;strong push&#8221; for the pitcher as soon as he left the JPL to MLB.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Breaking: Yusei Kikuchi to the Jays.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/1502720358276808706?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 12, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Kikuchi presents an option to take pressure off of Nate Pearson at the back of the rotation. Furthermore, it will give Pearson, Trent Thornton, and Ross Stripling a chance to be the sixth starter or come out of the bullpen. Last year, he posted his best season in North America, finishing with a 7-9 record with a 4.41 ERA in 157 innings. He opted out with the Mariners with $13 million on the table. There are plenty of reasons why he&#8217;s a natural fit for Toronto. In 2021, he pitched well against the AL East, posting a 3.89 ERA against Toronto&#8217;s four division foes. However, there are reasons for concern. After the All-Star break, Kikuchi posted a 5.98 ERA as opponents hit .300 against him.<\/p>\n<p>The signing comes less than a day after the Blue Jays signed reliever Andrew Vasquez to a major league deal. A southpaw like Kikuchi, Vasquez has 6 2\/3 MLB innings to his credit across stints with the Minnesota Twins and Los Angeles Dodgers. His primary choice of pitch is a looping curveball. Before the lockout, Toronto signed reliever Yimi Garc\u00eda to a two-year, $11-million contract. Then, they signed right-handed starter Kevin Gausman to a five-year, $110-million deal.<\/p>\n<p>The Blue Jays now have themselves have an excellent rotation. With another pitcher to the rotation, Kikuchi will likely be the fifth starter with Alek Manoah, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Jose B\u00e9rr\u00edos, and Gausman ahead of him.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Players Mentioned:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kikucyu01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yusei Kikuchi<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/manoaal01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alek Manoah<\/a>,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/ryuhy01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Hyun-Jin Ryu<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gausmke01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Gausman<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/berrijo01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jose B\u00e9rr\u00edos<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/vasquan02.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Andrew Vasquez,<\/a><\/strong> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/garciyi01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yimi Garc\u00eda<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thorntr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trent Thornton<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/stripro01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ross Stripling<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yusei Kikuchi is heading to the Toronto Blue Jays. The left-hander agreed to a three-year, $36 million contract. MLB Insider Jon Heyman was the first to report the news on Twitter. Kikuchi earned his first All-Star nod in 2021 with the Seattle Mariners. Before the lockout, Heyman reported that Toronto made a &#8220;strong push&#8221; for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":48850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,35,7],"tags":[2262],"class_list":["post-53625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-news","category-bluejays","tag-mlb-free-agency"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}