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MLB trade season has officially kicked into high gear with contenders looking to add to their rosters for the stretch run ahead and rebuilding teams aiming to stockpile young players with an eye to the future before Thursday’s 6 p.m. ET MLB trade deadline arrives.

As the moves go down, you can probably form your own opinion of the MLB veterans headed to new teams, but it’s much more difficult to figure out what to make of the minor leaguers who have moved.

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Here’s our running ranking of every notable prospect who was dealt during July sorted by tiers using my Future Value grades so you can see where they slot in an MLB top 100 list or your team’s farm system ranking.

This story will be updated with top prospects headed to new teams added to the list with every new deal, so come back every time a move goes down to see which stars of tomorrow are on the move this month.

More: Top 10 prospect rankings for all 30 MLB teams


60 FV tier

1. Leo De Vries, SS, Athletics

Acquired from the San Diego Padres in the Mason Miller deal

Take a moment to consider how rare this sort of deal is. The last prospect of this caliber to be traded was probably Yoan Moncada headlining the trade package for Chris Sale at the 2016 winter meetings. Four years of control after this season of arguably the best reliever in baseball in Mason Miller is quite a prize, but De Vries has star potential, and that’s why players like this rarely even get discussed in deals.

De Vries is one of those international signees who had scouts whispering his name as early as age 13 or 14 as the clear best player in his signing class. He signed for a $4.2 million bonus in January 2024. The Padres are aggressive in promoting their top prospects, so De Vries opened his pro career in Low-A as a 17-year-old months after signing his contract, then went to the Arizona Fall League after the 2024 regular season. The switch-hitter has played all of this season in High-A while being the same age as domestic high school seniors.

De Vries has been thrown into the deep end of the pool and has excelled by any measure, with signs that he could grow into stardom. He has present above-average raw power that will grow into 60- or 65-grade raw power along with excellent pull/lift numbers and solid pitch selection that will help him get to all of that power in games, roughly 25-35 homers annually. His bat-to-ball ability plays as roughly average, in part because of the power/pull/lift approach, but the innate ability is above average. Being so young for his level — the average age at High-A is 22 years old — obscures his ability a bit, but having tools, performing while switch hitting and playing shortstop at almost four and a half years younger than the average player at your level is something you only see from the best prospects in the sport. None of his offensive splits are worrisome: He performs against velocity, breaking stuff, with two strikes, etc.

Defensively, De Vries has the tools you’re looking for — an easy plus arm, quick and smooth hands — and some soft skills, like an internal clock and feel for throwing from different platforms. He can get a little lackadaisical at times, but that’s somewhat typical for players this talented. De Vries is a fringy runner and his range is below average for a shortstop, so time will tell if he’s the kind of defender who can make up for his lackluster range with all of his other abilities, or if he just becomes an above-average defensive third baseman.

You can interpret his talent differently — he could be a top-five prospect in the game or maybe more in the teens to 20s (I lean the former) — but he’d be the No. 1 pick in almost any draft.


50 FV tier

Acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies in the Jhoan Duran deal

Tait is an electrifying prospect with massive raw tools from the enticing demographic of an 18-year-old lefty-hitting catcher. He has some of the biggest raw power in the entire minor leagues, even if you don’t adjust for his age. He hit a ball 116.2 mph this season; the average max velo for an 18-year-old minor leaguer is between 103 and 106 mph, depending on how you’re qualifying it. And yes, that 116.2 mph rocket was hit 424 feet to the pull side, exiting the entire stadium. Tait has a solid feel for bat-to-ball, but there’s a concerning amount of chase, which is in keeping with the power-based, high-effort pull-and-lift approach.

Beyond that, Tait has plus-plus arm strength behind the plate, posting some insane pop times in games but also rushing and losing his mechanics at other times, so his caught-stealing numbers are merely good instead of great. The subtle art of framing is another area where Tait excels — particularly at the top of the zone — but his ball blocking and agility suffer as he often can sell out to frame a pitch or set up for a throw to second.

I can see a scenario in which his raw tools carry the profile and he doesn’t improve much more, with a career similar to that of Gary Sanchez. Or Tait could really take a step forward and be a future 30- to 40-homer stalwart who also is a solid catcher — that is to say, a potential star.


Acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays in the Shane Bieber deal

In 2023, Stephen was a mediocre prospect as a starting pitcher at Purdue. He transferred to Mississippi State in 2024 and had a breakout year, improving at almost everything but staying on the board until the 59th pick because he had merely average-or-so raw stuff. Stephen’s stock has rocketed up this year not because his stuff got that much better, but because it’s now clear he has plus command, which makes his pitches play up a tick or two, akin to George Kirby or the pitcher he was traded for in Bieber.

The velocity, movement and angle of Stephen’s fastball make for a fringe-to-average pitch but it plays as at least a 55-grade pitch, while his solid-average slider plays as the same grade. His above-average changeup now plays as at least a 60-grade pitch. It’s hard to tell until the upper minors or even majors if Stephen’s command is more 55- or 60-grade or maybe even better, but the weak contact allowed this season, largely in A-ball, suggests there’s some real magic. His delivery backs up the heat maps and outcomes, and his range of possibilities go from No. 2 to No. 4 starter, likely as soon as next season.


Acquired from the New York Mets in the Ryan Helsley deal

Baez has a rare combination of plus raw power, plus bat control and the arm strength to stick in the infield. There’s still some work to do to reach his upside, though. He is pretty pull-oriented with a flatter swing plane — so he doesn’t always lift the ball as much as he should — in addition to (understandably) being vulnerable to pitchers with better raw stuff with two strikes. Those are all somewhat expected offensive hurdles with this skill set, but not every prospect can make the adjustments.

Baez splits time between second base, shortstop and third base, but he seems to fit best at third long term. He has an above-average arm that will play anywhere and solid, quick hands. However, he is a below-average runner, so he also has below-average range, which are reasons for his well-below-average defensive metrics. Being an average defensive third baseman isn’t a slam dunk, but he can get there with some work. For what it’s worth, he looks to me to be a little more comfortable at second base.


Acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies in the Jhoan Duran deal

Abel was a highly touted draft prospect, going 15th out of an Oregon high school in the 2020 draft, when he was peaking in the upper 90s at 6-foot-5. He only got his walk rate under four per nine innings this season, which is also when he made his big league debut and answered the questions as to whether he could still be a long-term starter.

One big reason for that walk rate improvement is his fastball command, helped by slight delivery/timing adjustments. Abel sits at 94 to 97 mph and hits 99 with a four-seamer that peppers the top of the zone as an above-average pitch, along with a sinker that plays around average. His slider is an above-average pitch that he throws in the strike zone too often to get above-average results. Abel’s curveball is a solid average third pitch, and while he doesn’t throw it much, his changeup is a solid average pitch when located. With an extra tick of command, he should be a third/fourth starter, and the Twins have a solid track record of teasing that last bit of ability out of talented pitchers — so it could happen as soon as this season.


45+ FV tier

Acquired from New York Mets in Tyler Rogers deal

I was a big fan of the 5-foot-9 Gilbert coming out of Tennessee in the 2022 draft because of his plus speed, plus arm, plus contact rates and average-or-so raw power along with his strong performance in the SEC. He’s mostly the same player but has evolved a bit; he’ll turn 25 in September and is likely to make his big league debut soon, too. He has lost a tick of speed — he’s now a 55-grade runner who doesn’t try to steal many bases — and is a fringy center fielder who might end up in right field long term, where he’d likely be an above-average defender.

Gilbert’s raw power is now a grade better — also a 55-grade tool — so you can expect around 20 homers at his peak if his approach holds up. His contact and on-base skills are both similar to what they were in college (plus contact, average chase rate). He can also pull a plus velocity fastball, though keep an eye on his two-strike approach against off-speed stuff from big league arms. That’ll be the problem if he sputters a bit when he comes up.


45 FV tier

Acquired from Cincinnati Reds in Ke’Bryan Hayes deal

Stafura was the No. 43 pick in 2023 and signed for an overslot $2.5 million out of New York high school. The scouting report now is still pretty similar to what it was then: he’s a plus athlete with easy plus speed who has a shot to stick at shortstop and above-average power potential but might be a 40-grade hitter (.230 average or so), which could undermine the profile. He has the tools to stick at shortstop and makes the plays, but he can be upright and stiff at times.

He has solid pitch recognition, bat speed and ball flight, which are the basic components to success as a hitter in the big leagues. That said, Stafura’s timing against mid-90s or better velocity and steep bat path (i.e., geared for fly balls) will cause many more whiffs at higher levels against better pitching, so adjustments will be necessary.


40+ FV tier

Acquired from Seattle Mariners in Josh Naylor deal

A 2023 11th-rounder out of Texas A&M, Garcia was a sleeper in the Seattle system who broke through as a starter in 2024. This season, he was moved into a full-time relief role, leading to his big league debut earlier this month.

He has an upper-body-reliant delivery with very short extension and a near-sidearm slot that nonetheless creates a lot of velocity, with his fastball peaking at 100.4 mph this season and living at 95-98 mph with his plus sinker. He also mixes in an 88-90 mph cutter and 84-86 mph sweeper that are both plus pitches. Garcia’s fastball command improving and the cutter continuing to be a useful weapon against righties are keys to him becoming a late-inning reliever.


Acquired from Milwaukee Brewers in Danny Jansen deal

Areinamo is listed at 5-foot-8, is a below-average runner and has below-average range that will keep him from being a long-term everyday shortstop; he’s already splitting time between shortstop and second/third base in High-A this year. Those facts limit his upside a bit, though he has an average arm and can catch the ball when he gets to it. The sales pitch is that he’s growing into fringe-to-average power with a sometimes wild swing but manages to also post plus contact rates. The offensive hesitation is that Areinamo, as his swing suggests, can get a little wild chasing pitches out of the zone, even if his standout bat control bails him out of some bad swing decisions. With some progress on his chase rate, Areinamo could move from a projected platoon guy to a lower-end starter at second base.


Acquired from New York Mets in Tyler Rogers deal

Tidwell is a good athlete with a fine delivery who is a classic control-over-command pitcher — meaning he can throw any of his pitches over the plate, but has trouble hitting specific spots regularly. Despite his raw stuff being above average, and him already starting big league games, many evaluators worry he’s more of a multi-inning reliever than a true starter.

His four-seam fastball plays down a tick or two from its plus velocity due to the locations and plane/shape. He seems like a better fit to rely more on his sinker as his primary fastball given his steep angle into the strike zone tied to his higher arm slot. His slider is roughly average but he throws it in the strike zone way too much, so it’s getting hammered, while his sweeper is above average by movement but he locates it well and it’s performing above average, too He doesn’t use his changeup much and it’s around average.

Tidwell is on the back-end starter/middle reliever (who is also a spot starter) spectrum and it may take until this time next year to have a better idea of what he’ll be.


Nos. 11-20

40 FV tier

Acquired from New York Yankees in Ryan McMahon deal

Herring, selected in the sixth round of the 2024 draft, has an 88-92-mph heater that touches 94 and looks as if it’ll be a fringe-to-average pitch, while his slider is above average and his changeup (which should be used more often) also flashes above average. He’ll move up to the 40+ FV tier with a little more bulk of performance and/or a strong finish/promotion in Double-A.


12. Wellington Aracena, RHP, Baltimore Orioles

Acquired from New York Mets in Gregory Soto deal

Aracena was a low-profile international signee, getting a $70,000 bonus in 2022 out of the Dominican Republic. He sat 90-94 mph for his first two pro seasons, then his velo exploded in 2024 to 95-98, hitting 100 mph. This year he’s been even a bit higher, sitting 96-99 and hitting 101 mph at 20 years old as a starter in Single-A.


13. Enrique Jimenez, C, Minnesota Twins

Acquired from the Detroit Tigers in Chris Paddack deal

Jimenez is a 19-year-old, switch-hitting catcher playing in Rookie ball who has a solid chance to stick behind the plate long term, but as you’d guess, he still has some defensive work to do.


14. Ashton Izzi, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks

Acquired from Seattle Mariners in Josh Naylor deal

Izzi was a classic projection righty who signed for $1.1 million after being selected in the fourth round of the 2022 draft out of an Illinois high school. With some progress in his mix and locations, this is a No. 4 starter package, but Izzi is more of a long reliever as currently constituted.


15. Juaron Watts-Brown, RHP, Baltimore Orioles

Acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays in Seranthony Dominguez deal

Watts-Brown was projected to be a first-rounder entering his draft spring in 2023 at Oklahoma State because of his projectable frame, athleticism, starter traits, fastball shape and above-average breaking stuff. If he can find an additional notch of command and/or velocity, there’s still a shot he can be a No. 4 starter, but time is starting to run out.


16. Andrew Hoffmann, RHP, Arizona Diamondbacks

Acquired from Kansas City Royals in Randal Grichuk deal

Hoffmann was a 12th-round pick out of Illinois in the 2021 draft who was traded to the Royals in 2022 and finished the season in Double-A, beating predraft expectations. He was seen as a potential back-end starter at that point, but moved to full-time short relief this season en route to making his big league debut. With better fastball locations, Hoffmann could move from middle relief into the later innings.


35+ FV tier

17. Clayton Beeter, RHP, Washington Nationals

Acquired from New York Yankees in Amed Rosario deal

Beeter was a second-round pick in the 2020 draft and has slowly moved down the starter-to-reliever spectrum to becoming a full-time reliever for the first time in 2025. Beeter is still a solid prospect because of his 65-grade slider and above-average fastball that peaks at 99 mph. His fastball command is the variable that, with more progress, could turn him into a late-inning reliever, but Beeter is a higher-variance middle reliever who needs to avoid walks in Triple-A to get his next big league shot.


18. Matthew Etzel, LF, Miami Marlins

Acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in the Nick Fortes deal

Etzel is a long-term left field fit who was also traded at last year’s deadline from Baltimore in the Zach Eflin deal. He has a solid feel for drawing walks and pulling/lifting the ball with his solid-average raw power (think 15-20 homers at peak). His contact rates suggest he might be a .230 or .240 hitter, so Miami is hoping it can get a solid role player out of Etzel.


19. Browm Martinez, CF, Washington Nationals

Acquired from New York Yankees in Amed Rosario deal

Martinez signed for a $130,000 bonus last January and was solid last summer in the Dominican Summer League before having a huge repeat season in the league this year — posting an OPS of 1.139 driven by higher contact rates. There is still a wide range of potential outcomes for Martinez as an 18-year-old playing in the lowest level of the minors. There’s some physical projection left given his age, but his power projects to continue to be below average, so sticking in center would be key to his long-term value.


20. Josh Grosz, RHP, Colorado Rockies

Acquired from New York Yankees in Ryan McMahon deal

Grosz is a potential No. 5 starter/swingman type with some feel and deception from his abruptly quick delivery. He throws a 92-95 mph dead-zone fastball with heavy tail that plays around average, an above-average changeup and a fringy slider.

He has a tougher road to being a solid big leaguer if he can’t stick as a starter because most teams prefer a middle reliever to have an above-average breaking ball to get right-handed hitters out.


21. Cameron Foster, RHP, Baltimore Orioles

Acquired from New York Mets in Gregory Soto deal

Foster is a 26-year-old long reliever who sits 93-96 and hits 99 mph from a high slot (it’s on the whole an average big league pitch). He’s a solid back-end-of-the-roster-type utility arm who can be used in multiple roles and should debut this year or next. He needs to be added to the 40-man roster after the season to protect from the Rule 5 draft.

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Yanks’ newcomers implode in 13-12 loss to Marlins

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Yanks' newcomers implode in 13-12 loss to Marlins

MIAMI — Xavier Edwards hit a tying two-run single in the ninth, then raced home with the winning run on Agustin Ramirez‘s chopper in front of the plate as the Marlins rallied to beat the New York Yankees 13-12 on Friday night.

Edwards’ hit came off new Yankees reliever Camilo Doval (4-3), and Edwards beat the attempted tag at home on Ramirez’s fielder’s choice grounder. After Edwards’ single off Doval, Jose Caballero, also a newcomer, committed an error in right field, allowing the Marlins to tie the score.

The Yankees had won 79 straight games when scoring 10-plus runs, which was the longest streak in major league baseball since 2019, according to ESPN Research.

Giancarlo Stanton and Trent Grisham each hit three-run homers that helped the Yankees build a 9-4 lead before the Marlins stunned New York with a six-run seventh.

Kyle Stowers hit a grand slam off newly acquired Yankees reliever Jake Bird, and Javier Sanoja hit a solo shot off David Bednar, another new acquisition. Ramirez singled twice, including a leadoff base hit and a go-ahead single that put the Marlins up 10-9.

Anthony Volpe then tied it at 10 with a leadoff home run in the eighth, and Bednar pitched a scoreless inning before Ryan McMahon‘s RBI single against Anthony Bender (3-5) in the ninth. Volpe, who had four hits, gave the Yankees a two-run cushion with a run-scoring double.

Yankees starter Carlos Rodon was lifted in the fifth after issuing his fifth walk. The left-hander shook his head as he left the mound, with his outing ending after he struck out nine and allowed two walks and four runs.

Rodon held the Marlins without a hit before Eric Wagaman‘s leadoff single in the fifth. Sanoja launched an opposite-field two-run shot off Rodon, and pinch hitter Liam Hicks drove in two with a single off Jonathan Loaisiga that made it 6-4.

Jasson Dominguez also had three hits.

Marlins starter Janson Junk went five innings and allowed six runs and six hits while striking out four.

The announced crowd at loanDepot park was a season-high 32,299.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Down 9 runs in 1st, Rockies rally to beat Pirates

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Down 9 runs in 1st, Rockies rally to beat Pirates

DENVER — Colorado Rockies outfielder Brenton Doyle had a hard time describing what had just taken place after he delivered the crowning blow in perhaps the wildest game of the major league season.

Doyle hit a two-run homer with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning to cap Colorado’s stunning comeback from a nine-run, first-inning deficit in a 17-16 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night.

“Honestly, pretty speechless,” Doyle told reporters. “It’s hard to put into words. Just so proud of everyone in this clubhouse, never giving up. Man, what a win.”

Colorado won despite allowing nine runs during a first inning in which Pittsburgh’s Oneil Cruz hit a grand slam and Andrew McCutchen had a three-run homer.

The Rockies are the first team to overcome a nine-run, 1st-inning deficit since Cleveland on August 23, 2006 against Kansas City, according to ESPN Research.

The Rockies are also the first team to win despite allowing 15 or more runs since the Boston Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers 19-17 in August 2008.

“Getting down nine in the first, it’s tough to come back from, but we kept the energy high,” Doyle said. “We kept the fight in us. Oh my God, what a game.”

Colorado scored one run in the bottom of the first, three in the third, two in the fourth and four in the fifth to cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 15-10. The Rockies still trailed 16-10 before scoring two runs in the eighth and five in the ninth.

After Pittsburgh’s Dennis Santana started the ninth by striking out Ezequiel Tovar, Hunter Goodman‘s 425-foot homer reduced the Pirates’ lead to 16-13. Santana then walked Jordan Beck and allowed an RBI triple to Warming Bernabel.

Thairo Estrada singled home Bernabel before Doyle delivered a 406-foot shot to end the game.

The events in Colorado highlighted a night full of offense across the majors. According to StatsPerform, Friday marked the first time since June 23, 1930, that three major league games on the same day had at least 25 combined runs.

The Miami Marlins erased an early 6-0 deficit and scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat the New York Yankees 13-12. The Milwaukee Brewers had 25 hits while trouncing the Washington Nationals 16-9.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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How Ichiro’s HOF induction helps tell the story of Japanese baseball

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How Ichiro's HOF induction helps tell the story of Japanese baseball

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Hall of Famers coming to Cooperstown — the newbies and the veterans alike — are typically subject to a fairly regimented schedule. They have a garden party. Ozzie Smith holds an annual charity event. There’s a golf tournament on Saturday morning. They roll down Main Street on Saturday night during the Parade of Legends. Finally, there is the induction itself.

Ichiro Suzuki, a 2025 inductee, took part in much of this, but even though he is an avid golfer, he did not play in the golf tournament. It turns out that doing so would’ve meant that he wouldn’t be able to maintain his usual workout routine. So he headed out to one of the numerous Little League fields a few miles outside of Cooperstown and got in his work.

At 51 years old, he follows the same routine he always has. He played long toss, did his stretching and running, played catch with Billy Wagner’s son — an aspiring ballplayer himself — and took batting practice against Wagner.

When asked why, Ichiro kept it simple.

“Because I love it,” he said.

That much has been clear, not only through his 19-year MLB career but well before it and since. His induction weekend was not the first time Ichiro made the pilgrimage to Cooperstown — he has been here many times. Each trek he made as a player was to view and study different relics that held special meaning to him.

“You just don’t see players come to the Hall of Fame, while they’re actively playing in the winter time — seven, eight times, because they just want to touch the bat of the guy whose record they broke,” Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch said, “or be here in the freezing cold and snow to see this place.”

Ichiro didn’t limit those travels to the stops in Cooperstown — he famously visited the gravesite of Hall of Famer George Sisler after he broke Sisler’s single-season hit record in 2004 — but the beauty of the Hall of Fame is that it ties all of these interlocking stories together, linking the stars of the past with the stars of the present with the stars of the even more distant past, and in some cases, the stars of the future.

For a person like Ichiro, who is deeply interested in historical artifacts and the stories they represent, there is no better place than Cooperstown, and there is no better ambassador for Cooperstown than Ichiro.

“The history of baseball is very important,” Ichiro said. “We’re able to play the game today because of players of the past. I really want to understand them and know more about them. I think we all need to know the game of the past, things of the past, so we can keep moving it forward.”

Ichiro’s plaque there suggests the closing of a historical, cultural and symbolic loop that brings together two great baseball cultures.

It was the converging of paths, joining the practice of yakyu, the game Ichiro began playing at age 3, and the pastime of baseball, the game he still plays — with ritualistic abandon — at 51.

For all of the cultural significance and the historic nature of Ichiro’s induction, it’s this work ethic and his meticulous nature that is almost certainly going to be his greatest legacy. And it’s one that spins into the future, as he blazes a path to serve as a guide for the Japanese and American stars of the future — and present — to follow.

Before Shohei Ohtani, there was Ichiro. Before Ichiro, there were many, but none who followed the path that perhaps only he could see.


EVEN BEFORE SUNDAY, Ichiro Suzuki had a Hall of Fame plaque on a wall. That one was hung in January at the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame Museum, located within the Tokyo Dome.

The contrast between Cooperstown, a tiny rustic village in upstate New York, and Tokyo, one of the world’s largest and most dense cities, couldn’t be more stark. But the baseball galleries within them look very similar, right up to the shape and size of the plaques themselves.

This is no coincidence. The American version came first; the very concept of a Hall of Fame is a purely American convention. So when one was built in Japan, back in the late 1950s, it was an early sign of the dissolution of differences between the two leading baseball cultures.

The differences, convergences and exchanges between the two is the story told in the Hall of Fame’s stunning new exhibit “Yakyu | Baseball: The Transpacific Exchange of the Game.”

“This isn’t just an exhibition about baseball in Japan,” said RJ Lara, the curator of the exhibit. “This isn’t just an exhibition about baseball in the United States. It’s about how the two countries and how baseball in two countries has come together and exchanged equipment, ideas, concepts, players, teams.”

Baseball’s roots in Japan trace to the 1850s, the game exported there by visiting Americans and seafarers. For decades, even as the popularity of baseball spread, it remained a strictly amateur practice, with the college level seen as the pinnacle of the sport into the middle of the 20th century.

While baseball grew into America’s pastime as a source of joy and play for anyone who could toss a ball or swing a bat, in Japan, at least in the early years, yakyu was viewed as a martial art. In fact, the first thing you see when you walk into the exhibit is a suit of traditional Samurai armor, full of red and gold — a gift from the Yomiuri Giants to Los Angeles Dodgers president Peter O’Malley in 1988.

Yakyu, one of the Japanese words for baseball, describes a game that evolved from the American version and still differs in mainly intangible ways and strategic preferences. The gap between the two has narrowed, as the success of Ichiro, Ohtani and others strongly suggests. But it might never completely disappear.

The “Samurai Way of Baseball” — as author Robert Whiting described it — meant a painstaking focus on practice and repetition, a heavy emphasis on fundamentals and a standardized version of the game in which every discrete act had a precise method behind it, and everything was about the team: the “wa,” as outlined by Whiting in the seminal “You Gotta Have Wa.”

Starting around 1905, teams on both sides of the Pacific began making the voyage to compete against one another. But the biggest influence on the professionalization of baseball in Japan came in 1934, when a team of American barnstormers stuffed with future Hall of Famers — including Babe Ruth — toured the country, drawing huge crowds nearly everywhere they went.

Plans for a professional league were already being hatched, and the success of the 1934 tour helped to cement them. The Yomiuri Giants were founded in 1935, and, as longtime Tokyo resident Whiting put it, grew into a behemoth that became as popular as the Dodgers, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox combined. It set the stage for Sadaharu Oh, Shigeo Nagashima and the legends who laid the foundation of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) — and the collision of Japanese and American baseball that the exhibit celebrates.


THE YAKYU EXHIBIT has three centerpieces, and appropriately the first one you encounter focuses on Hideo Nomo. (Ichiro is the second and, though you can probably guess who is the third, we will come to that a bit later.)

Nomo was not the first Japanese-born player to make the transition to the major leagues: The seal was broken in the mid-1960s, when Masanori Murakami pitched two seasons for the San Francisco Giants. There was a lot of rancor in Japan over the move, and after two seasons, Murakami went back to Japan. Meanwhile, greats such as Oh and Nagashima stayed put, both spending their careers with Yomiuri, thanks to the reserve clause in place in Japan, as well as a societal pressure to remain true to Japanese baseball.

Oh talked in later years about how he would’ve liked to have played in the majors, but he just couldn’t do it. The taboo against jumping the pond remained in place until the mid-1990s. This was when Nomo “retired” from his team in Japan, a ploy cooked up by agent Don Nomura to exploit a loophole. Nomo ended up with the Dodgers, and Nomo-mania was born.

Nomo was heavily criticized at the time in Japan, and doubt existed in America about whether a Japanese player could truly make the leap. Nomo more than proved his ability to make the transition, and did so with such verve that it swept through Southern California and beyond, and also captivated audiences in Japan. The practice of baseball fans on the other side of the Pacific rising in the early morning to watch MLB began at that time.

The exhibit features some of Nomo’s equipment, as well as videos of hitters flailing at his nasty splitter. There are also some model baseballs with which you can try to simulate the grips Nomo used on his various pitches, including that splitter.

Jack Morris was in the midst of praising the nastiness of Nomo’s splitter when fellow Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith interjected, “You should try to hit it!”


NOMO’S DEBUT SEASON in 1995 preceded the now-celebrated 1996 Japan tour, which saw an MLB all-star team that included Cal Ripken Jr. play an eight-game series against players from the NPB, then called All-Japan. Ripken had gone on a similar tour in 1986, along with Morris and Smith, and a decade later he already noticed a marked difference in the caliber of play from his Japanese opponents.

“Going over there, you kind of look and shake your head and go, ‘These people are crazy about baseball,'” Ripken said. “They were talking about drawing 60,000 fans for a high school championship game.

“I thought the Japanese were always really competitive and very serious. They wanted to do really well. They wanted to beat us.”

One of the opponents of the all-star group in 1996 was Ichiro, and that experience for the Japanese star, in combination with the phenomenon that Nomo created, began to turn his head toward the other side of the Pacific. He wanted to test himself.

“The excitement I felt in that series was definitely a turning point,” Ichiro told author Narumi Komatsu in “Ichiro on Ichiro.” “Instead of something I just admired from afar, the majors became a set goal of mine.”

Ichiro had become a phenomenon in his home country, his face splattered on billboards all over Tokyo and beyond, as he exploded on the scene by becoming the first player in Japanese professional history to record 200 hits in a season, setting the since-broken record of 210 at age 20. He hit .353 during his nine years for Orix, which would far away be the all-time highest average in Japanese history if he qualified for the career leaderboard.

He did it in his own way, forging a path unlike any players before him. He famously refused to change the batting stance he’d used since high school — much to the chagrin of his first manager with Orix.

Ichiro also donned the name “Ichiro” on his jersey, departing from Japanese tradition. Suzuki is a common name in Japan and his club felt that would make him all the more marketable, which it did. To this day, in baseball everywhere, when you hear the name “Ichiro”, you know exactly who’s being referenced.

Bobby Valentine, who initially bucked against tradition when he went to manage in Japan, eschewing conventions such as marathon practice sessions and incessant meetings, saw things evolving, especially when he prepared for his first stint with the Chiba Lotte Marines in 1995, the year Nomo debuted with the Dodgers.

“That was the year after Ichiro was Rookie of the Year for Orix in 1994,” Valentine said. “Every night, all the coaches got together and looked at video and looked at charts, trying to figure out one guy, Ichiro.

“He showed me what he could do. I asked him for an autographed bat and told him that he was one of the best players I ever saw.”

Later, when Valentine was managing the New York Mets, he unsuccessfully lobbied his front office to pursue Ichiro.

“I was told at the end of the day, that they didn’t want a singles hitter in the outfield,” Valentine said mournfully. “And I said, ‘What if you get 200 of them?’ I swear. And he got like 240 of them.”


AT TIMES, IT has been far from certain that the paths that came together through Ichiro on Sunday would indeed merge. That part of the story isn’t overlooked in the yakyu exhibit.

It’s depicted in a couple of very different ways that relate the baseball sliver of the story of the years during and after World War II, including the post-war period when the United States occupied Japan under the supervision of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

One object from the war years is the most melancholy relic in the exhibition, and indeed perhaps in the entire Hall of Fame.

It is a handmade, wooden home plate that once was part of Zenimura Field at the Gila River in Arizona internment camp during the war. The field was built by Kenichi Zenimura, a baseball advocate born in Hiroshima who spent most of his childhood in Hawaii.

The home plate is a a solemn reminder of how the forces that too often keep nations apart can’t be overcome by baseball alone. But if baseball can’t keep nations from conflict, conflict can’t keep people from baseball.

“It was the anchor of the Gila River community, and that’s how we like to describe it,” Lara said. “During these tragic, incredibly hard times at this camp in Arizona, it was the anchor that brought the community together, around a single baseball diamond that they built with their hands.”

After the war, when the occupation of Japan began, much of the country, and especially Tokyo, was in ruin. The battle for the ideological soul of the country was well underway in those early years of the Cold War, and the influence of communist Russia was of chief concern for the Americans.

MacArthur thought that reigniting the dormant cultural elements of Japanese society might help to calm things down and help make some headway in turning heads from the encroaching communist influence. With many of the country’s cultural institutions in rubble or ashes, sports, especially baseball — which can be played outside and a sport the Japanese already loved — was the answer.

Author Robert K. Fitts describes the sequence in “Banzai Babe Ruth.” League play resumed in 1946. Things improved enough that in 1947, Japan celebrated Babe Ruth Day at the same time that the major leagues were honoring the dying slugger. Quality of play began to recover but the overall fervor around yakyu still fell short of the pre-war years.

In 1949, on a suggestion from MacArthur staffer Cappy Harada, the project was turned over to Lefty O’Doul, who had fallen in love with Japan on a 1931 tour with other major leaguers and played a key role in helping convince Ruth to join the 1934 tour.

O’Doul, manager of the San Francisco Seals, brought his Pacific Coast League squad to Japan after the 1949 season to tour the country. The Seals were welcomed with a parade and, over the course of four weeks, helped boost the morale of a struggling nation. One evening before a game, for the first time, the flags of the United States and Japan were raised together, bringing many fans to tears.

Japanese journalist and historian Tadao Kunishi sees the O’Doul tour as one of the turning points in the evolution of Japanese baseball, especially in its gradual move toward becoming more like the American game.

“During that time, Japan was still doing the rebuilding,” Kunishi said. “We did not have much entertainment, and baseball is outside. So many movie theaters were burned down, so they cannot play, but baseball is outside, and anybody can go there. And really [Lefty] O’Doul brought the joy of watching baseball.”

A veritable baseball Forrest Gump, O’Doul always seemed to be in the middle of baseball history. He pitched for John McGraw. He converted to hitting and one year batted .398 in the National League. He managed and mentored life-long friend Joe DiMaggio, whom he brought along on a later, much-celebrated tour of Japan. He saw the potential of Japan as a baseball nation from the start.

“He said it was just a matter of time that Japanese ballplayers are going to be playing in America,” said Tom O’Doul, Lefty’s cousin. “And they’re going to be playing American baseball because they’re good and they respect the game. And that’s what happened.”

Though you don’t need to attribute the eventual boom in Japan — baseball and beyond — entirely to Lefty O’Doul and baseball, those tours proved to be a turning point in the ongoing exchange in the sport between Japan and America, which had seemed hopelessly severed.


THE THIRD CENTERPIECE of the yakyu exhibit, along with Nomo and Ichiro, as you probably have guessed, is the display for Shohei Ohtani, who is in the midst of a Hall of Fame career, and thus years away from joining Ichiro in the Japanese and the American plaque rooms. But he will get there.

Ohtani’s display looms in the back of the room behind Ichiro and indeed, from a certain angle as you stand there and look upon Ichiro’s uniform and bat and shoes and batting glove, a little lower to the left and against the wall behind him, you see an image of Decoy, the most famous dog — and literary muse — in all of baseball.

As for the player himself, Ohtani’s display is a stunning piece of museum technology. Depending on which angle you take to look at his image, you might see him pitching or hitting for the Los Angeles Angels, doing the same for the Dodgers, or celebrating the end of Japan’s victory in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, which he clinched by fanning Mike Trout for the last out.

The rise of Ohtani is also a chief part of the legacies of Oh and Nagashima and Nomo and Ichiro. By now, 74 players have made the transition to the major leagues — not all with resounding success, but many have reached All-Star status. All you have to do is look in the financial ledgers and the contracts that have been dolled out to the likes of Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki to know how Japanese stars are valued today.

For his part, Ichiro does think that the differences between yakyu and MLB have softened, but they still exist — and they should.

“It usually takes a few years for Japanese baseball to pick up the things that happen in major leagues,” Suzuki said. “It’s definitely getting closer.

“I don’t think that Japan should copy what the MLB does. I think Japanese baseball should be Japanese baseball in the way they do things, and MLB should be the way they are. I think they should be different.”

And yet in so many ways, Ichiro himself was the bridge. He was yakyu and he was baseball.

Ichiro, who will generally give frank answers about himself and his thoughts about baseball, almost always deflects when asked about the thoughts or impressions of others. He still does it.

When asked about his role or his sense of how Japanese fans are reacting to his induction to Cooperstown, he says he doesn’t know. When asked about his relationship to the current Japanese stars in the major leagues, he says that he sees them at the ballpark when they come through Seattle.

He doesn’t get any more detailed when asked about the path that he has opened up for other Japanese stars, but he does open up a little when discussing his role in spreading knowledge to the next generation of players on both sides of the Pacific.

“The players need to tell the younger players about the game,” Ichiro said. “That’s a responsibility that those who have played this game have. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to help in that aspect, but it’s something I’d really like to do.”

As much as anything, Ichiro’s legacy is helping to bring the paths of two different baseball cultures together.

“We used to say that yakyu and baseball are different games with the same rules,” Kunishi said. “Now yakyu and baseball is the same game and the same rules.”

As far as legacies go, that’s not bad, even if the process remains ongoing. In the meantime, Ichiro will be there, connected with Cooperstown and Japan alike, making sure that no aspects of all the history he has been a part of will be lost.

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