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The story
It emerged on September 28 via a Nikkan Sports report that Yakult Swallows pitcher Koyo Aoyagi (32) has been left out of the team’s plans for next season. Aoyagi left the Hanshin Tigers to pursue a shot at MLB, was released from the Phillies’ Double-A affiliate last July, and signed with Yakult that same month — but went winless in three appearances last season and never got called up to the first team this year before receiving this notice. On 5ch, opinions split over whether his MLB bid was worth it, how quickly underhand pitchers tend to decline, and how to view Hanshin letting go of both Shintaro Fujinami and Aoyagi around the same time.
Published 9/29 (Tue) 4:00 AM
Nikkan Sports
It was learned on the 28th that Yakult Swallows pitcher Koyo Aoyagi (32) has been left out of the team’s plans for next season. He was released from the Phillies’ Double-A affiliate last July and joined Yakult at the end of that month. He went winless in three appearances last season, and has not been called up to the first team at all this season. He is believed to want to continue his playing career.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Everyone probably figured Uesawa would actually turn out to be useful (lol)
Who are you calling unfair!
He's their nemesis, a real DeNA-killer, so it could work
He should've just stayed with the Tigers
He hated that idea, that's exactly why he went after the majors
Even Fujinami still looks more likely to find takers?
On top of that, once age drags his output down,
his delicate balance collapses and he's no longer pro-level
Reminds me of Hisashi Yamada or Masaki Saito — though those are seriously old-school names
Rei Takahashi faded out fast too.
before we even get to 'decline'?
What happened
His numbers were already sliding a good two years before he left for the majors
So yeah, call it decline
Cold-hearted? They let two guys move to MLB without even having international FA rights — that's plenty generous. What happens after that is on them.
You don't have to go back that far — there's Shunsuke Watanabe and Makita too
Nope
Aoyagi's a year above him
He's in the Kondo/Yoshida Masataka class
and are feeling pretty smug about it (lol)
both ended up on teams with zero stake
in this year's pennant race
Fujinami's velocity plus Aoyagi's form and control might actually add up to something usable
That's not it
Both Fujinami and Aoyagi were cut loose because they stopped winning, plain and simple
Sato Teruaki wants to try the majors too, but they won't let him go because he's still a valuable piece
'Cut loose' isn't the right word
They just didn't stand in his way, they didn't push him out
If anything, the club respected his own wishes
Don't write careless nonsense
Noisy's homer and Aoyagi's strong outing —
that was a genuinely rare game
He's got the presence of a (52) year old…
He's been called a 'homegrown veteran' since the day he joined the team
Background and Points of Debate
Aoyagi was Hanshin’s ace-caliber pitcher around 2021, but his performance began declining around 2023, and in 2024 he left the team to pursue a move to MLB despite not holding international free-agent rights. He failed to produce the results he wanted in the Phillies organization, was released, and joined Yakult last July. In the thread, opinions split over whether to view his exit from Hanshin as the club ‘cutting him loose’ or as ‘the team respecting his own wishes,’ with Hanshin’s parallel split from Shintaro Fujinami around the same time cited as a point of comparison. This latest move — being ‘left out of next season’s plans’ — comes after a season with no first-team call-up, but the term itself doesn’t mean release or retirement; the article only notes speculation that he intends to keep playing. His future will likely come into focus through the coming release notices and roster-cut meetings.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Yakult] Koyo Aoyagi left out of next season’s plans — joined last July, no first-team call-up this season, believed to want to keep playing.”
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