Shotaro Morii, 18-year-old 2-way player, bypasses Japanese baseball to sign with Athletics
FILE - An Oakland Athletics flag is flown after a baseball game between the Athletics and the Texas Rangers, Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Benjamin Fanjoy, File)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Benjamin Fanjoy]
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 to a minor league contract with the Athletics that includes a signing bonus of $1,510,500. 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. Rintaro Sasaki, a first baseman who turned 19 in April, bypassed NPB’s draft to play college ball for Stanford last season. Morii, a shortstop and right-handed pitcher, joined the A’s directly from high school on the first day of the 2025 signing period.
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In this image taken from a video, Japanese high school student Shotaro Morii speaks during an online news conference Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, as he agreed to a minor league contract with the Athletics. (Kyodo News via AP)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS