Seattle Mariners and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo: Hit or Miss?

Almost without fail, anytime a Japanese player is posted to MLB teams, the Seattle Mariners are going connected to that player. This winter, the big prize from Japan may be Yoshitomo Tsutsugo. So let’s answer the question.

The question of course being, ” are the Mariners going to be interested”? The case against is pretty straight forward. GM Jerry Dipoto already came out and said not to expect any big moves this off-season, particularly mentioning that he wants to give his young position players plenty of time with Seattle in 2020.

On top of that, Tsutsugo is an outfielder and the Mariners logjam in the outfield has been well documented. And, of course, there is the whole rebuild thing. Teams in a rebuild don’t typically target such players.

And a lot of those reasons were mentioned anytime we would report that the Mariners had serious interest in Yusei Kikuchi. ” Kikuchi won’t want to come here”. The team is rebuilding, that’s a buyers move”. Through it all, we kept telling reporting that Kikuchi and the M’s were a serious possibility. And until it was officially announced, nobody really believed us.

Now, I don’t know yet if Dipoto is interested in Tsutsugo. My gut feeling is probably not. However, the glut of outfield talent in the Mariners system will not be what deters the Mariners from pursuing him, IF they believe he is an impact talent.

And that is the million-dollar question. Is Tsutsugo an “impact talent”? By quickly glancing at his numbers in the JPCL, you would be tempted to say yes. In 10 career seasons, he has a career slash of .285/.382/.528 with 205 home runs. Pretty solid.

Another good indicator is his walks and strikeout ratio, or as Mariner fans may know it, “controlling the zone”. In his 10 seasons, Tsutsugo has struck out 833 times while drawing 537 walks. He has drawn 80 or more walks in each of the past 4 seasons while posting home run totals(2016 to now) of 44,28,38, and 29.

He has power, makes contact, and understands the strike zone. Seems impactful. But of course, boxscore scouting isn’t advised. And based on the reports we have to work, Tsutsugo is a poor defender and mediocre base-runner.

In other words, Tsutsugo has to hit to give you much value. Is that profile worth giving run over Jake Fraley, Braden Bishop, Kyle Lewis, Mitch Haniger, Mallex Smith, and or Domingo Santana? I couldn’t say.

But if Dipoto does pursue Tsutsugo, it means that he believes the Japanese slugger is impactful. At 28-years-old, he does fit in the window age-wise, so this could be something to keep an eye on. We will continue to track the market on Tsutsugo this winter.