When he had moved there for school, he figured he was putting his baseball fandom on the backburner. He had fallen in love with the sport in his native Tokyo, where Nippon Professional Baseball is a popular pastime.

Bauer, who last played in MLB with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021, pitched for the Bay Stars in 2023, when he recorded an 11-4 record and 2.59 ERA in 24 starts. Last year, he played for Diablos Rojos del Mexico in the Mexican League, where he went 10-0 with a 2.48 ERA.

That leads to a posting fee of $700K. Ogasawara, 27, pitched in part of nine seasons for the Chunichi Dragons of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He threw 951 1/3 innings, allowing 3.62 ...

Former Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer will rejoin the DeNA BayStars for the 2025 Nippon Professional Baseball season, a source familiar with the matter said Monday. The 34-year-old right-hander is expected to bolster DeNA's starting rotation as they seek to capture their first Central League pennant in 27 years.

The Los Angeles Dodgers aren't ruining baseball following their latest Roki Sasaki signing — they're just better at it than everyone else in MLB.

Japanese baseball stars have almost exclusively come to MLB after playing in NPB. Morii is breaking precedent by signing with the A's.

The Milwaukee Brewers announced the signing of right-handed pitcher Elvin Rodriguez, who spent all of last season pitching in Japan with the Yakult Swallows, to a big-league contract Friday. Rodriguez signed a one-year deal with a club option for 2026 with Milwaukee.

The Los Angeles Dodgers cemented their status as Major League Baseball's new "Evil Empire" this offseason with a raft of acquisitions that position the team as favorites to repeat as World Series champions.

Nippon Ham Fighters manager Tsuyoshi Shinjo voiced dissatisfaction Monday with posted players switching Japanese clubs upon returning

The Dodgers bolstered their starting rotation on Wednesday with the addition of right-hander Roki Sasaki, who will join fellow Japanese pitchers Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Los Angeles, the team said in a statement.

It won't be official until the voting is released, but Ichiro Suzuki is heading to the Hall of Fame.  The Japanese outfielder is expected to be one of the names inducted into Cooperstown in the 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame class.

The splitter is on the rise in Major League Baseball, and the Dodgers are cornering the market. Splitters were thrown more often in 2024 than in any other season of the pitch tracking era, which goes back to 2008.