Kyuji Fujikawa to be a durable reliever – MLB News
Chicago Cubs’ recent moves to add two starters – Scott Feldman and Scott Baker, along with the Japanese reliever Kyuji Fujikawa have an interesting face to it. All the pitchers are over 30 years; raising questions over the Cubs’ plans to have a combination
of players able to sustain success in the building phase.
After all, having traded a bunch of veterans the past season in order to bring in the younger lot seemed a step towards a new direction which was essentially aimed at enabling the team to assert themselves in the National League Central with the young players.
If one has to critically assess the general manager Jed Hoyer’s view about the recent moves, one arrives at the conclusion that it actually is the case. He maintains the club will not necessarily offer contracts to the ones in free agency who are past 30.
“We’re not always going to stay on the right side of 30 in free agency,” Hoyer said. “It’s not realistic.”
As to why the Cubs hedged their bets on the 32-year old reliever, Fujikawa, among two aforementioned starters, president of baseball operations Theo Epstein has a different view about it.
Fujikawa is here to influence the younger lot since he brings with himself experience. The Cubs do not also plan to trade him for now since the deal is of two-years, worth $9 million with a vesting option for 2015 based on games finished in 2014.
"We’re not signing him at all with the intent to trade him. Obviously, we’ll see happens. Hopefully the team performs well and he’s pitching very important games for us.”
With the question of age and trade seemingly addressed, the Cubs then have to sort out the role for Fujikawa. Whether he is to be used as a setup man or the closer will be decided after ascertaining a number of things during the Spring Training.
Theo Epstein, nonetheless, says the club did not have a long discussion over this subject with Fujikawa.
“He said: ‘My job is not closer, it’s setup guy -- to help the team win and do what the manager asks of me,’ ” Epstein said. “And that’s the only time it came up in the whole discussion.”
The Cubs, it goes without saying, will have enormous challenges to confront in the upcoming season. After losing 100 games this year, they hope that with recent moves, results will be different for them in this building phase.
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