Yusei Kikuchi (32, Toronto Blue Jays) has completely transformed. On the 24th (hereinafter Korean time), he started the 2023 major league away demonstration game against the Minnesota Twins held at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers, Florida, USA, and gave up no runs with 3 hits, 9 strikeouts and 1 walk in 5 innings. 2 wins (1 loss) in exhibition games.
Kikuchi’s midterm performance in demonstration games is 2 wins and 1 loss with an ERA of 1.00 in 6 games. He gave up 2 runs on 9 hits, 25 strikeouts and 10 walks in 18 innings. 0.148 batting average and 1.06 WHIP. He walks quite a bit, but strikes out a lot, and his crisis management skills are outstanding. Entering the demonstration game on this day, he successfully built up to 88 pitches in 5 innings for the first time. 토토사이트
Kikuchi signed a three-year, $36 million contract in the 2021-2022 free agent market. However, he went around 32 in the 2022 season and was sluggish with 6 wins and 7 losses with an ERA of 5.19. He made only 20 starts. That’s because midway through the season he was demoted to the bullpen. He had a solid fastball in the mid-90s, but had extreme command fluctuations across the board.
However, in this year’s demonstration game, his pitching with a sense of stability raises expectations for the season. Manager John Schneider told MLB.com, “Kikuchi is doing really well. He seems to have been consistent in his strike zone. I have a lot of trust in him now.”