Farewell to the 2016 Gaijin
The Tigers made it official today. My hometown player, Matt Hague, is among the foreign-born players that won’t be returning to the Tigers in 2017. Honestly, it was to be expected. He only hit .231 with two home runs for Hanshin, and that’s after his 2015 season in Buffalo, where he hit .338 with 11 home runs and 92 RBI. He only played 31 games with the Tigers this past year, so it was a very disappointing season all around for him.
Also gone is Mauro Gomez. After his 2014 season where he hit 26 home runs with 109 RBI, he’s seen his average and on-base percentage regress over the last couple of years while his power offense diminished slightly. In regards to Gomez, Eiichi Takano thanked him for his three years, but was disappointed by Mauro’s third-year stats, hoping to see more from him.
Cody Satterwhite will end his tour in Osaka after only one year, where he posted a 1-1 record with an ERA of 2.57. He pitched in 20 games this past season, and averaged nearly a hit and a strikeout per inning. The kid is only 29 years old, so I would expect him to latch on with another team or return to the American minor leagues in 2017.
Finally, there’s Nelson Perez, who appeared in only 3 games for the 2015 edition of the Tigers and didn’t play at all this past year. He’s 29 and the last time he played a full year was 2013, so his future is anyone’s guess.
We’ll see what the roster looks like closer to the season, but it’s the end of the road for these 2016 Tigers.