[Heyman] Yusei Kikuchi to the Angels. $63M, 3 years.

34 comments

  3. Unexpected but we got another Japanese star. Appreciate it as a Japanese fan who stayed here lol. Hope he sticks with the pitch mix that was working well for him.

  7. Someone convince me that this makes any sense at $63M/3yr. At face value, I don’t see how he’s worth $21M AAV. His career really doesn’t have many standout seasons, and even his best seasons look more like $15-18M AAV value.

  8. Overpay, for a 33 year old, homer-prone Lefty with a career ERA of 4.57. Kikuchi is Heaney with more velocity. Advanced stats like him, but it never translates to good season results.

  11. not an Angels fan but if you’re looking for reasons for optimism:

    For years, Kikuchi has been one of the best SPs in baseball at getting strikeouts and avoiding walks. Giving up homers has always been the one knock on his profile. That said, he’s gone from “horrible” to merely “quite bad” in that aspect, meaning the combined profile is actually quite good. (3.70 xERA/3.46 FIP/3.20 xFIP in 2024.)

    The deal isn’t cheap, but there’s no QO penalty since Kikuchi was traded midseason, and there’s real performance upside as a good No. 2.

  12. Great idea for a club that’s going nowhere to sign a 33 year-old to three years and $63 million.  It just drips of desperation as the only way the Angels can get players is to overpay for mediocre talent. So sad to see what this franchisehas become

  15. I’m not a fan of this move due to his age + price. I’m happy to see Arte spending money. I just wish it was on an ace

  18. I don’t like it but I don’t mind the strategy right now of spreading out the FA money rather than putting it all in one basket that has been known to fail for us (Rendon, Pujols, Hamilton, etc)

  19. I wanted him when he first came over with the Mariners. He had a rough tenure there and I remember Ohtani shelling him their first MLB game vs each other. He has been on the upswing these past few seasons. I hope we get more pitchers.

  21. We signed a 33 year old with a career 91 ERA+ for three years and $63MM?

    This team is a mess.

  22. He was on the marlins before this right? He’s an up and down guy. Has good stuff, but I’ve seen him get knocked around before as well.

  23. Yet another Perry classic of signing mid 30s pitchers to head scratching deals: Loup, Tepera, Thor, TA, etc.

    Someone convince me why a 33 year old pitcher deserves 21M a year when he’s never cracked 2 WAR in his 6 year career.

    Why are we going on all on this? Michael lorenzen is more effective at like 1/4 the cost just go with that as we rebuild.

    Someone please ask Perry wtf he’s thinking by constantly grabbing mid 30s players

  26. Remember fellow fans players don’t have to take our offers this guy did and he’s no slouch. Something is changing and he liked what he saw. I like it

  29. This is a great pickup for us as a solid 2/3 in the rotation as long as we double dip for an Ace next

  30. Arte really been missing the OC Asian ticket sales hasn’t he. In all seriousness I don’t know what to expect. If he can be just as good as shota I will not complain.

  31. Cool signing, hopefully he works out! He’s got good stuff and the hope is he’s wiser in how to utilize it now.

    Let’s continue this trend of Japanese signings. Sugano next and Roki if we are really lucky.

  32. Oof. I mean, I want him to succeed here. But he’s just gonna be comically bad in a halos uniform for year and a half before getting traded for nothing and having a resurgence somewhere else.

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