The Toronto Blue Jays cut Ken Takahashi, 39, on Monday. The Mets jumped on the free agent left-hander and signed him the very same day.
Takahashi played from 1995 to 2008, his entire Japanese career, with the Hiroshima Tokyo Carp. At the end of the 2008 season, he declared himself a free agent and expressed his willingness to play in the MLB. The Toronto Blue Jays signed him to a minor league deal, which was worth up to $1.5 million if he made the team.
After suffering an injury and pitching only 1 2-3 innings in spring training, the team cut him loose.
To find out more about Takahashi, who will start the season with the Buffalo Bisons, the Mets Triple-A affiliate, I asked Patrick Newman of NPBTracker.com and Baseball Digest a few questions.
Is Takahashi a LOOGY (Lefty One Out Guy)?
No, he was a starter last year and didn’t perform that well against lefties — .333 ba against in 126 batters faced.
Average pitch speed?
Probably high 80’s on the fastball, but I haven’t seen him this year. I believe he can reach about 91 on his fastball.
Can he perform at the major league level? / Worth it or just minor league fodder?
The odds are against him, being 40 and not having an obviously dominating pitch, but he thinks his changeup is as good as [Hideki] Okajima’s. Definitely a low-risk pickup. You can’t have too many arms, and if he proves he can get lefties out in AAA the Mets may have something.
For more on Takahashi, check out a full post about him on NPB Tracker.
Topics: Ken Takahashi
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[...] Newest Met Ken Takahashi threw two innings, allowing one hit. He walked three. Roy Merritt (hey, there he is again!) pitched a scoreless inning, striking out one and allowing one hit. Tim McNab pitched a hitless inning. Nelson Figueroa struck out two, allowed one hit, and earned the win as the Mets came back late. [...]
[...] answered a few questions on Ken Takahashi for the Mets section of [...]