The Boston Red Sox took home another award today in MLB.com’s This Year in Baseball Awards as Hideki Okajima was named top setup man, easily outdistancing the Yankees’ Joba “The Hut” Chamberlain in the voting.
For the Red Sox, this marks the fourth award they have won out of the 7 issued so far. Josh Beckett was named Starter of the Year, Jonathan Papelbon was named Closer of the Year and the no-hitter by Clay Buchholz was named the top Performance of the Year.
When the Red Sox signed Okajima, they saw him as someone who would be there for Daisuke Matsuzaka as he adjusted to life in America and MLB. Little did they know he would be the Red Sox Japanese All-Star representative and one of the top setup men in the game last year.
Kudos goes out to the Red Sox Pacific Rim scouting department for the great find.
