New York Yankees sign former Los Angeles Dodgers' pitcher Hiroki Kuroda – MLB News
The New York Yankees have signed 36-year-old former Los Angeles Dodgers' right-hander pitcher Hiroki Kuroda on a one year deal worth $10 million in order to strengthen their current 40-man roster.
This recent deal was made between Kuroda and his agent shortly after Yankees acquired right-hand pitcher Michael Pineda from the Seattle Mariners in a pursuit to rotate their pitching prospects. The Yankees also shuffled their rotation on Friday when they traded their catcher and brilliant hitter Jesus Montero to Mariners’ back swapping two potential prospects.
Still no official statement has come out in the media regarding any confirmation of this deal as still Kuroda had to pass a physical but a person familiar with the deal did confirm on a condition of anonymity.
However, to Kuroda’s credit, he certainly is a talented player and will be producing his best game in the upcoming Major League Baseball season. Last year, he went 3.07 ERA along with 13-16 win-loss record, 161 strike-outs and 1.21 WHIP with the Dodgers and acclaimed much appreciation from baseball experts.
Recently, the Boston Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine also gave a statement praising Kuroda’s game and his future time with the Yankees. He said, “Kuroda is a good pitcher [but] a year older than he was last year. [And he will be] pitching in the American League and not the National League. [He’s going from] pitching in not a great pitchers’ ballpark from a great pitchers’ ballpark but has some ability to dominate. They’re probably an upgrade from [Bartolo] Colon and [Freddy] Garcia, Probably. I don’t know. It seems it.”
Having played in the Dodgers for last three years, Kuroda has developed his game according to MLB now despite spending his entire initial years in Japan playing with Hiroshima Toyo Carp. Though, Kuroda was good in Japanese League, but being in biggest baseball league in the world, he probably has learned the real tricks of the trade to survive with future prospect in hand.
On the other hand, since the Yankees have signed him, they are taking it as a drastic step forward and looking forward to gain some benefit from his game.
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