Million Dollar Arm: Looking back on the Boston Red Sox presence in Asia
Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports
Disney’s Million Dollar Arm tells the story of sports agent J.B. Bernstein, who concocts an American Idol-like competition to find the best baseball pitcher in the cricket-loving nation of India, home to 1.2 billion inhabitants. He discovers not cricket stars but javelin throwers in Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, both of whom can touch the high 80’s on raw talent alone. The Pittsburgh Pirates eventually signed both Singh and Patel; as of 2014, Singh remains in the game but recently underwent Tommy John surgery.
When the Los Angeles Dodgers agreed to terms with Japanese ace Hideo Nomo in 1995, Major League Baseball would never be the same. “The Tornado” won the Rookie of the Year award thirty years after Masanori Murakami, the first ever Japanese-born Major Leaguer, returned to Japan following a two-year stint with the San Francisco Giants.
Nomo, who later spent a year with the Red Sox and fired the first no-hitter in a Boston uniform in over 35 years, blazed the trail for Asian-born players, some good, some not-so-good, in America. Over two decades, he has been joined by teammate Chan Ho Park (who actually debuted before Nomo but didn’t become a regular until ’96), All-Star compatriots like Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui, and a host of others.
With Million Dollar Arm on my mind, I decided to look back on the Boston Red Sox history of scouting Asia. I found a number of Japanese and Korean-born players who’d cracked the big league roster in Boston, some acquired by trade (Byung-Hyun Kim), others signed as Major League free agents (Nomo and Koji Uehara) and others imported straight from the continent to the Majors (Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima).
Yet over that time, only one Asian-born player, Japanese relief ace Junichi Tazawa, was signed from his home country, developed in the Red Sox system, and thrived at the Major League level for the Red Sox (Taiwanese outfielder Che-Hsuan Lin only briefly saw time in Boston during the Bobby Valentine era).
Click ahead for a tale of Red Sox feast and folly scouting Asia over the past two decades.
Aug 27, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; Baltimore Orioles executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette prior to a game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Dan Duquette, the Red Sox GM at the time of Nomo’s ascent, believed South Korea held the talent. Duquette signed on Ray Poitevint as Boston’s Executive Director of International Baseball Operations — you might recognize Poitevint as the scout portrayed by Alan Arkin in Million Dollar Arm. While Poitevint had experienced a great deal of success in Central America and was a trail blazer in Asia, the arrangement didn’t exactly pan out for the Red Sox. Duquette routinely doled out signing bonuses of three-quarters of a million dollars or more for Korean talent that never made it out of the Red Sox system. Remember top prospect Seung Song? I thought so.
However, the organization under Duquette did bring a number of Asian-born players to the Major League level within a few years of Nomo’s debut, a feat in itself for an organization historically slow to adapt and not well-regarded for its diversity.
The first to debut was Korean righty Jin Ho Cho. The 22-year old caught Duquette’s eye pitching for the Korean National Team at the 1996 Olympics, posting a 2.38 ERA in three games. Duquette gave the native of Jun Ju City an $850,000 signing bonus.
Making his first start on July 4, 1998, Cho held the White Sox to one run over six tidy innings of work, taking the loss as the Red Sox bats went quiet. He was trampled by Baltimore the following start and after two more ineffective outings was sent to the minors. Cho would return in ’99 but never experienced sustained success at the Major League level, eventually heading back to Korea after several less-than-impressive campaigns in Pawtucket. Back home, Cho was jailed for several years trying to avoid military service.
Countryman Sang-Hoon Lee was one of Duquette’s most heralded international busts — right up there with “Dominican Mystery Man” Robinson Checo. The 28-year old former Korean “Fireman of the Year” got $3 million from the Red Sox for two years that ultimately resulted in 11 and 2/3 big league innings.
Nicknamed “Samson,” the orange-haired Lee actually posted a decent 3.09 ERA in his nine Major League appearances in 2000, but failed to crack the roster out of spring training the following year. He played out the string with Pawtucket, then headed back to Korea, where it is said he eventually pursued his dream of becoming a rock musician.
Two of Duquette and Poitevint’s signings did have legitimate Major League careers. Japanese pitcher Tomo Ohka logged 51 wins and a 4.26 ERA over ten seasons in Boston, Montreal, Washington, Milwaukee, Toronto and Cleveland. His best year was probably 2002, when he went 13-8 with a 3.18 ERA and 1.24 WHIP, striking out a career-high 118 for the Expos.
Ohka was a useful rotation piece for the banged-up 2000 Red Sox, posting a 3.12 ERA in 12 late-season starts. After scuffling in 2001, he was shipped to Montreal in the Ugueth Urbina deal, securing the Red Sox closer position for the next two seasons.
Sun-Woo Kim was another Red Sox import who pitched better for Montreal than he did for Boston. Kim received a $1 million signing bonus from Duquette in ’98 and reached the big club by 2001, posting a 5.83 ERA in 20 appearances, including two starts.
The Expos came calling for Kim and the aforementioned Seung Song in the Cliff Floyd deal at the 2002 trading deadline. While Floyd was unable to carry the Red Sox to the playoffs in ’02, Kim made a total of 51 appearances (23 starts) in parts of three seasons for Montreal before they became the Washington Nationals. Kim also pitched for the Reds and Rockies, finishing his career with an even 13-13 record and 5.31 ERA.
Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
If the Duquette era of scouting in Asia was something of a trial-by-fire, GM Theo Epstein’s signing of phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka represents the ultimate Red Sox failure on the continent. Unlike bigger Japanese flame throwers like Yu Darvish or Masahiro Tanaka, the 6-foot, 205 lb. Dice-K was advertised as a sort of pocket rocket who dominated the Far East with a fascinating pitch called the Gyroball. I myself remember trawling YouTube late at night during grad school, searching for proof of the Gyroball’s existence instead of writing my Master’s thesis.
Out of the gate, Matsuzaka was more than serviceable (15-12, 4.40 ERA, 201 K), if lacking the polish of a Major League ace. But concerns mounted: the baseball was bigger here than it was in Japan, the Red Sox altered his throwing program…on and on. He barely made the 2007 playoff roster and was a minor factor during the Red Sox march to the World Series crown (though he did pitch 5 and 1/3 decent innings against the Rockies in his lone Fall Classic start).
Against all odds, a carefully-monitored Dice-K went 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA in 2008. I can’t recall another pitcher winning 18 and averaging less than six innings a start. Much less leading the league in walks.
Things fell apart for Dice-K in 2009 as the injuries continued to pile up. Despite a salvageable 9-6, 4.69 effort in 2010 as part of a terribly banged-up rotation, he went 17-22 with some gnarly ERAs his last four years in Boston. In the end, Dice-K’s 9.2 WAR in six seasons wasn’t worth the $51 million posting fee, much less the additional $52 million contract the Red Sox lavished upon him over six years.
Oct 30, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Junichi Tazawa catches the ball to force out St. Louis Cardinals designated hitter
Allen Craig(not pictured) in the seventh inning during game six of the MLB baseball World Series at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
In recent years, the Red Sox have taken a more conservative approach in their Asian scouting efforts. The 2006 signing of Hideki Okajima was a case study of focused restraint, resulting in four seasons of effective relief on short money ($7 million), none prettier than his All-Star campaign in ’07 when he went 3-2 with a 2.22 ERA in 69 innings as the primary setup man for Jonathan Papelbon. The Red Sox eventually won the World Series and Okajima was a key component.
The 2008 signing of Junichi Tazawa has also posted happy returns, despite the pitcher’s 2009 Tommy John surgery. Following the procedure, Tazawa was converted to a reliever and has been one of the best in the American League over the last three seasons. While lights-out closer Koji Uehara signed as a Major League free agent with the team prior to the 2013 World Series season, Tazawa remains the lone Asian-born Red Sox prospect to have sustained success with the big club.
So there you have it: a selected history of Boston Red Sox scouting efforts in Asia, from the misfires of the Dan Duquette regime, through the Dice-K fiasco, to the more recent success of two Japanese bullpen aces. While Million Dollar Arm has yet to produce a Major League caliber talent out of India, as the Red Sox have shown, it takes time to develop an international presence and even then, success is not guaranteed.