Shintaro Fujinami Stats & Scouting Report College Baseball, MLB Draft, Prospects

Track Record: Fujinami entered Japanese baseball lore when he led Osaka Toin to both the spring and summer Koshien tournament championships in 2012, including pitching a two-hitter with 14 strikeouts in his final start. He was drafted by Hanshin in the first round that year and made the NPB All-Star Game as a 19-year-old rookie the following year, the first of four consecutive All-Star selections. Fujinami rivaled Shohei Ohtani for the best pitching prospect in Japan in those early years, but his control suddenly regressed and his star faded rapidly. Hanshin demoted him to the minors during a disastrous 2017 season and he spent the next five years shuttling back and forth between the majors and minors in Japan. He regained some semblance of control in limited action in 2022, leading Hanshin to post him after the season.

Scouting Report: Fujinami has an appealing pitcher’s frame at 6-foot-6, 180 pounds and still possesses the explosive stuff that once left scouts considering him on par with Ohtani as a prospect. His heavy fastball sits 94-95 mph and touches 98-99 with little effort out of a clean, easy delivery and jumps on hitters with late explosion and armside bore. He complements it with a 90-92 mph splitter that tunnels well off his fastball and flashes plus when he locates it at the bottom of the zone. Like many Japanese pitchers, Fujinami mostly throws his fastball and splitter, but his slider shows promise at 85-88 mph with tight turn and drop and could become an average pitch with more usage and development in the majors. Fujinami’s stuff is explosive, but his delivery lacks deception and he struggles to throw strikes. His strike-throwing issues are more mental than mechanical and have been ingrained for so long they may be difficult to fix.

The Future: The A's will give Fujinami a chance to start. His stuff is so enticing, but his lack of deception and control will make it difficult to get through a lineup multiple times. He has a solid fallback option as a reliever and could pitch in higher leverage situations.

Scouting Grades Fastball: 60 Slider: 50 Splitter: 60 Control: 40

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