The courtship of Junichi Tazawa is over as he has finally signed a 3-year $3.3 million contract with the Boston Red Sox. Tazawa chose the Red Sox over the Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners and Atlanta Braves.
Tazawa was an amateur free agent in Japan having spent the past four seasons in the Japanese Industrial League playing for the Nippon Oil ENEOS. He had asked the Japanese pro teams not to draft him so he could pursue his dream in the United States.
And now he’ll get a chance to rub toes with his idol, Daisuke Matszuaka.
“The reason I came directly to the [United States] is I wanted to try to play here. I wanted to challenge myself.”
“I think there is a definite influence of having Daisuke Matsuzaka play here,” Tazawa said. “To me he is the best player and to be able to learn from him is an incredible opportunity for me.”
“He’s got a presence that is even (higher) than the clouds,” Tazawa said of Matsuzaka through a translator. “He’s been a great hero of mine, and I hold him in very high esteem.”
Tazawa will get a $1.8 million signing bonus and will receive salaries of $450,000 in 2009, $500,000 in 2010 and $550,000 in 2011. He’ll also remain under the Red Sox control until 2014 through his pre-arbitration and arbitration years.
GM Theo Epstein had this to add about the Red Sox becoming the destination for players coming over from Japan.
“When we signed Daisuke, it was for baseball reasons. We saw it as a unique opportunity to acquire a 26-year-old, top-of-the-rotation starter,” Epstein said. “We certainly hoped and considered the fact that signing Daisuke would allow us to establish a heightened presence in Japan and around the world, and that someday there might be some ancillary benefits.”
Tazawa is expected to start the season in Double-A with the Portland Sea Dogs where he will be a starter. He has both starting and relieving experience during his amateur career in Japan.
