Yoshida is doing well…
Masataka Yoshida 메이저사이트(30, Boston Red Sox) is by far the Asian major leaguer who is the next best Asian major leaguer after Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels) in the major league this season. Yoshida signs a five-year, $90 million contract in the 2022-2023 offseason to serve his first major league season.
36 hits in 112 at-bats in 29 games, batting average 0.321, 6 homers, 24 RBIs, 22 runs, OPS 0.939. He is fifth in the American League in batting average and sixth in OPS. In Boston, he has already established himself as a leading hitter along with Rafael Devers and Alex Verdugo. On the 9th (hereinafter Korean time), he was selected as the American League Player of the Week just a month after his major league debut.
Since mid-April, Yoshida has rapidly increased his batting pace and entered the 30/2 mark at once. He produced a 16-game hitting streak before the Minnesota Twins on April 21 and the Philadelphia Phillies on the 8th. Right now, on the 10th, against the Atlanta Braves, he will challenge for a 17-game hitting streak.
Where there is light, there is also shadow. Seiya Suzuki (29, Chicago Cubs) is a Japanese outfielder who entered the major leagues a year before Yoshida. Yoshida is one year older, but Suzuki entered the major leagues one year earlier. In the 2021-2022 offseason, he signed a five-year, $85 million (approximately 112.8 billion won) contract with the Cubs.
Outfielder Yui is one of the eight Japanese major leaguers active in the major leagues this season. Moreover, the two were the best hitters in Japanese professional baseball. In fact, from the past, Suzuki has been rated higher for his offense and defense, and was the fourth batsman at the Tokyo Olympics.
However, Suzuki has been a bit unresolved since last year. He did not stand out with a batting average of 0.262, 14 homers, 46 RBIs, 54 points and an OPS of 0.769 in 111 games in the 2022 season. This season, his participation in the WBC was frustrated due to a side injury, and his start in the regular season is not good.
He is 22 hits in 85 at-bats in 23 games with a batting average of 0.259, 1 home run, 9 RBIs, 8 runs, and an OPS of 0.683. It was a bit late from the start as the season started against the LA Dodgers on April 15 due to the aftermath of the injury. Still, a month has passed, but the feeling of hitting has not risen significantly. Entering May, he consistently produces hits except for two games, but the impact is not great. Multi-hit only 1 game. The home run did not come out for nearly a month after reporting it in the first game of the season. As a right-handed hitter, he is strong against left-handed pitchers (0.370), but is not productive against right-handed pitchers (0.207).
Yoshida’s great performance makes Suzuki look relatively small. For Suzuki, there is no way that Yoshida’s great performance would not be a stimulus. Of course, the season is still early, and there is plenty of time for the batting graph to fluctuate. As he approaches the middle of his 5-year contract, it is time for Suzuki to look forward to something.