The Las Vegas Athletics may have found their potential franchise player in Japan after signing 18-year-old Shotaro Morii on Wednesday for a $1.5 million bonus deal. After a saddening end to the Athletics’ season and moving away from the historic Oakland Coliseum,

Back home, he's a wellspring of national pride, much like Shohei Ohtani now ... Left-handed pitcher Hideo Nomo preceded him, and Hideki Matsui came just after, both boosting the country's ...

Roki Sasaki could be the greatest Japanese pitcher ever. He hopes the Dodgers can turn him into just that, even if it means Shohei Ohtani outshines him.

Back home, he's a wellspring of national pride, much like Shohei Ohtani now ... Left-handed pitcher Hideo Nomo preceded him, and Hideki Matsui came just after, both boosting the country's ...

Suzuki spent nine seasons with Orix in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball before joining MLB and the Mariners in 2001. While Japanese pitcher Hideo Nomo was a star for the Dodgers in the 1990s, Suzuki was the first Japanese position player to enjoy that level of success in the majors.

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Ichiro debuted in Major League Baseball in 2001 with the Seattle Mariners, the first Japanese position player to span the Pacific and an instant star. Left-handed pitcher Hideo Nomo preceded him, and Hideki Matsui came just after, both boosting the country’s confidence in a period of national malaise.

Roki Sasaki was formally introduced by the Los Angeles Dodgers in a press conference at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday. The Japanese phenom was posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines in December and immediately became one of the most coveted free agents of the offseason.

What do you buy for the team that has everything? That is the question that the Los Angeles Dodgers have been wrestling with this winter. The answer, it would appear, is Roki Sasaki.

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers have signed international free agent right-handed pitcher Roki Sasaki. Sasaki, 23, joins the Dodgers after spending the last four seasons with the Chiba Lotte Mariners of the Nippon Professional Baseball league.

Ichiro Suzuki was one of the faces of baseball during the 2000s after making the jump from the Japanese League to join the Seattle Mariners, paving the

Yankees legend Hideki Matsui played seven seasons for the Yankees. It wasn’t until his final one, in 2009, with the addition of lefty ace CC Sabathia, that he managed to get that elusive World Series ring.