The Texas Rangers scouted more of Yusei Kikuchi’s starts in Japan than they did Shohei Ohtani’s, and concluded that he’s not as good as the Babe Ruth of Japan.
Kikuchi isn’t as good as Yu Darvish or Masahiro Tanaka, either, but he’s good enough to pitch in the major leagues and the Rangers will monitor the left-hander as he heads to MLB.
Kikuchi was posted Tuesday by the Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball and is free to sign with any team that agrees to pay a release fee based on the percentage of the final dollar amount of his contract.