The Cleveland Indians bolstered their bullpen with the signing of Japanese right-hander Masahide Kobayashi to a two-year contract with a club option for 2010.
The addition of the 33-year-old Kobayashi figures to give the Indians a solid 1-2 combination in the bullpen.
Just two weeks ago, the Indians exercised the 2008 club options on pitchers Joe Borowski, Paul Byrd and Aaron Fultz. Borowski, with 45 saves this past season, became just the second Indian to ever lead the AL outright in saves, joining Jose Mesa (46 saves) in 1995.
Kobayashi spent the last nine seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Japanese Pacific League, where he averaged more than 30 saves over the last seven seasons. He was the No. 1 draft pick by Chiba Lotte in 1999 and has compiled a career Japanese professional record of 36-34 with 227 saves and a 2.79 ERA in 303 games. That includes 10 starts for Kobayashi, who was a member of the Japanese Olympic baseball team in 2004.
“The signing of Masahide Kobayashi marks the first contract ever signed by a Japanese professional baseball player into the Cleveland Indians franchise and, more importantly, accomplishes one of our primary off-season goals of adding depth to the back end of our bullpen,” Indians general manager Mark Shapiro said. “Masa has pitched and succeeded at the highest level and on the biggest stage of the Japanese Professional Baseball League. He should be a valuable addition to our bullpen.”
Kobayashi is one of just three pitchers in the history of Japanese professional baseball to record over 200 saves, and that includes a record 20 or more saves seven straight years.
This past season, he posted a record of 2-7 with a 3.61 ERA and 27 saves in 49 relief appearances. Kobayashi was on the disabled list in September with a neck injury.
- Steve
