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 ...

Top Japanese players traditionally have signed first with Nippon Professional Baseball clubs and established their professional credentials before moving to MLB as free agents or through the MLB-NPB posting process. Morii, a shortstop and right-handed ...

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.

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.

Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2025. The final results were unveiled Tuesday

Hoping to become a two-way player in Major League Baseball just like Shohei Ohtani, 18-year-old Shotaro Morii made the rare decision to bypass Japanese professional baseball entirely and agreed Wednesday to a minor league contract with the Athletics that includes a signing bonus of $1,510,500.

Ichiro Suzuki and CC Sabathia were elected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America on Tuesday. Billy Wagner also received enough votes to round out the 2025 Hall of Fame class. Results were unveiled in an election show on MLB Network.

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