Cubs Talking to Another Japanese Free Agent Not Named Roki Sasaki

Sooooo, we’re all kinda waiting for the Cubs to add on following the Cody Bellinger trade and while we know they met in person with star pitcher Roki Sasaki the team has reportedly been talking to another Japanese free agent as well. According to an article from Yahoo! Japan, left-handed pitcher Shinnosuke Ogasawara has been in contact with as many as 10 MLB teams this offseason and the Cubs were one of two teams that were mentioned by name in the report.

Ogasawara, 27, was officially posted by his NPB team on Dec. 10, opening up his 45-day window to sign a contract with an MLB team. The lefty isn’t expected to sign until after the new year. The pitcher made his pro debut in Japan in 2016 with the Chunichi Dragons and has put together a strong career across 161 games.

Here’s the latest through Google translate. Via Yahoo! Japan.

“I’m not in a hurry, and it’s Christmas in the US. The market will close, so it will automatically be next year,” he said about his future plans. The left-handed pitcher, who repeatedly said, “There’s nothing I can say yet” about his next transfer destination, is currently being investigated by at least 10 teams, including the Cubs and Mets.

In 2024, Ogasawara made 24 starts and posted a 3.12 ERA in 144.1 innings.

We know the Cubs are searching for additional pitching, both in the starting rotation and in the bullpen, but looking at Ogasawara’s profile he’s most likely suited for a relief role in MLB. The lefty projects as a No. 5 starter/swingman. A quick overview of the Cubs current bullpen construction would lead you to believe that the team’s interest in Ogasawara would fill their need for a left-handed reliever.

You might fall into a trap trying to compare free agent pitchers coming over from Japan because although you might be tempted to think about Shōta Imanaga when discussing Ogasawara, the two pitchers are nothing alike.

Here’s Baseball America’s scouting report on Ogasawara.

“Ogasawara is a physical, muscular lefthander who commands a deep arsenal. His fastball sits 89-91 mph and touches 94 without much life, but he locates it effectively to both sides of the plate. His best secondary pitch is an average [changeup], 76-80 mph that mirrors his fastball. He occasionally alters his grip to make it a split-change at 82-83 with similar action to give hitters another pitch to think about. Ogasawara primarily throws his fastball and changeup, but he’ll mix in a fringy slider and a looping, low-70s curveball with decent depth to keep hitters off balance. He holds runners extremely well and controls the pace and tempo of the game. Ogasawara relies on inducing weak contact rather than swings and misses and his stuff leaves him little margin for error, but he has plus control to effectively work the edges of the strike zone.”

While Imanaga was a big strikeout pitcher in Japan, Ogasawara very much pitches to contact. The lefty struck out 82 batters in 144.1 innings this past season, less than half as many as Imanaga did in his final year pitching in Japan.

That isn’t to say the Cubs can’t make a few changes to Ogasawara’s pitching repertoire if they do sign him, but the free agent is not viewed in the same tier as Imanaga and that’s even with Imanaga coming over last offseason as an underrated pitcher.

Ogasawara just turned 27-years-old in October, so his relative youth could be seen as a positive. He’s been much better since the 2021 season, recording a 3.28 ERA in his last 595 innings. Ogasawara has also been durable, throwing at least 140 innings in each of his last four seasons. Ogasawara’s best season was in 2022, when the left-hander had a 2.76 ERA with 142 strikeouts in 146.2 innings, walking only 39 batters and allowing a total of nine home runs.

With Matthew Boyd already in the fold for 2025, Ogasawara could ultimately settle in as the Cubs’ swingman on the pitching staff. Maybe the Cubs experiment with a six-man rotation?

We’ll see. The Cubs are in the mix for Sasaki and maybe everyone is waiting around for his decision before the pitching market picks up again, but fans should expect multiple additions to the pitching staff between now and the start of spring training. Explore all the avenues because as we’ve seen, you can really never have enough pitching.