Thursday, October 15

Welcome to the International Beat newsletter. I'm MLB.com's Michael Clair. Thanks for being here. 

If you’re a fan of one of the 26 teams that isn't still battling for the World Series, you’ve likely got one eye on the postseason and the other looking toward next spring. As you head to bed a little later than usual after watching postseason baseball, you're likely dreaming of free agent signings, wildly unrealistic trades, and breakout seasons from every one of your club’s prospects. 

With the future on my mind, I reached out to a scout in the Pacific Rim, who preferred to remain anonymous, and was willing to talk about a few of the ballplayers who may be posted this winter. (Note: Most of Korea’s big names are more likely to come over next season, so we’ll take a look at a few of their upcoming players in a second newsletter to come later this month -- likely while I’m on paternity leave with my first child. You won’t be left without a newsletter the whole time I’m out!) 

Here are four NPB stars to watch out for: 

3B/OF Teruaki Sato 

2026 stats (NPB): .306/.383/.609, 39 HR, 106 RBI, 8 SB, 68 BB, 164 K

Age (as of 2026 season): 27

Bats: L

Potential fits: Literally every team could use him, but for the sake of argument let’s say Mets, Phillies, Yankees, Dodgers, Mariners, Giants 

ETA: 2027

The 2026 Central League MVP didn’t suffer any post-award slump this year. After starring for Japan at the World Baseball Classic (3-for-10, 3 2B, 2 RBI), Sato returned to the Hanshin Tigers and improved his rate stats across the board, finishing with just the ninth triple crown in NPB history.

His .306/.383/.609 slash line is all the more impressive when you realize he accomplished this in a depressed offensive environment: In the NPB’s Central League, teams averaged 3.4 runs per game, over a full run lower than MLB’s 4.48.

Our scout really liked Sato, calling him a “big left-handed bat,” who “can hit in big situations.” He sees him best as an outfielder instead of at the hot corner or a move over to first base, “but there’s some versatility over there.” With the success of Munetaka Murakami and Kazuma Okamoto this past season, he has faith that “the bat will carry over." There will be plenty of interest from MLB teams should the Hanshin Tigers post him. 

Watch Teruaki Sato's RBI double against Venezuela at this spring's World Baseball Classic. Click image to view. 

SP Kaima Taira

Age: 26

Throws: R

2026 stats (NPB): 12-5, 1.36 ERA, 146 IP, 141 K, 45 BB

Potential fits: Yankees, Cubs, Mariners, Angels, Tigers 

ETA: 2027 

Taira has been a terrifying force for NPB batters the last few years, but he took it to the next level this past season – his first in the rotation since 2023. His stuff is probably the best on the market this year aside from Tarik Skubal -- assuming he’s posted, of course.  He throws a mid-90s fastball and has an entire coterie of secondary offerings, including a cutter, slider, change and -- of course -- a split-finger. 

“He’s got a big fastball, a lot of secondaries, and he’s a [student] of analytics,” our scout noted. 

Standing just 5-foot-8, many feel that he may be more of a reliever than a starter –  including our scout. “I think he had more velocity and the fastball was better when he was a reliever,” he said.

There aren't many pitchers his size who have even had the chance to start: Marcus Stroman is the only pitcher to have topped 100 innings in a season at 5-foot-8 or shorter since Fred Norman in 1979. Still, with pitching at a premium and Yoshinobu Yamamato proving that you don’t need to be a giant to harness great stuff, there will probably be some teams willing to put him in the rotation. If that’s important to Taira, that could also be a deciding factor in which team he chooses to join.

SP Hiromi Itoh

2026 stats (NPB): 10-10, 3.18 ERA, 172.2 IP, 159 K, 34 BB

Age: 28 

Throws: R

Potential fits: Giants, Blue Jays, Braves, Tigers

ETA: 2027

Itoh first made waves here in the States during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, when he pitched 2 1/3 shutout innings and looked dominant. He then entered this spring’s Classic as the reigning Sawamura Award winner -- the NPB’s version of the Cy Young. 

Unfortunately, things didn’t go so well in '26. Itoh struggled in the WBC, giving up the go-ahead home run to Wilyer Abreu that sent Venezuela to the semifinals and eliminated Japan. He then took a step back in the NPB, posting a 3.18 ERA and giving up more than a hit per inning for the first time in his career. 

While Itoh has an extra inch on Taima, he’s also 40 lbs lighter and could be ticketed for a relief role. “He could be an up and down starter,” our scout said, “but maybe in relief he might show some more velocity. In the previous WBC, he came out of the bullpen and he was 94-96 with some nasty stuff.” However, what Itoh lacks in size, he makes up for with a deep pitch mix consisting of “10+ unique grips and shapes” as noted by Yakyu Cosmopolitan. 

Should he come to the Majors next year, there is one thing Itoh would like to share: “I would like the fans in the U.S. and everywhere else to know that I am not just pitching, but that I enjoy myself on the mound,” Itoh told me this spring. "I like to express my excitement and joy.”

Hiromi Itoh strikes out six batters while pitching against Korea. Click image to watch video. 

SP Kona Takahashi

2026 stats (NPB): 9-6, 2.54 ERA, 138.1 IP, 114 K, 47 BB 

Age: 29

Throws: R

Potential fits: Rangers, Padres, Athletics 

ETA: 2027 

After being posted last winter and choosing to remain in Japan, Takahashi is now a free agent and can sign with any MLB club should he decide to do so. However, the right-hander doesn’t feature the same  stuff as the other pitchers on this list. He throws a fastball in the low-90s, and he scrapped his curveball this year in place of using a two-seamer and slider more often. 

Given that profile, Takahashi is likely ticketed for a relief role -- though our scout thinks “he’ll definitely be a really good reliever in MLB,” with “secondaries that will play.” 

• Were you sleeping over the weekend when Spain and Italy confirmed their spots in the Premier12 -- with an Olympic qualifying spot on the line next year? Well, catch up here. 
• I'm not the only one still talking about the World Baseball Classic. The Rays and Brewers are, too. David Venn talked to Rays manager Kevin Cash about how the WBC has helped Junior Caminero and Jonathan Aranda this October. 
• Ricardo Montes de Oca then looked at how Venezuela's championship run has helped the Brewers come just one game shy of the World Series. 
• Scott Merkin wrote a great story about how the White Sox are building relationships in Japan. 

HAVE GLOVE, WILL TRAVEL

Noah Zavolas pitches for the Greek national team. Photo courtesy Noah Zavolas. 

Earlier this year when I was in the Netherlands, I got to meet up with pitcher Noah Zavolas. I first met the Harvard grad (he tossed a no-hitter against Ivy League rivals Yale) and former Brewers prospect when he was at Prague Baseball Week as a member of the Greek national team a few years ago. Now, he’s a pitcher for Kinheim in the Honkbal Hoofdklasse -- the name of the Dutch league -- and is living across the street from the stadium while settling in for a life in Holland. I asked him a few questions about his experience. Here are some of those answers, edited for length and clarity. 

MLB: You’ve been in Europe for a bit now. You’ve played in the Euros. You’ve played in the German league. Now you’re in the Hoofdklasse. What is the level of play in Europe? 

Noah Zavolas: I think that that experience varies quite a lot because my first summer in Regensburg, I was getting paid to play. Housing was part of the deal, so I was able to treat it as I did in the Minors. That was all I knew. I'd explore the city in the morning and then go to the field, throw with some of our other imports, and practice or play a game at night.

And then very quickly, it became apparent that to stay in Europe, if you want to do that, you need a job -- and that varies league to league. Can you get paid enough during the season to support yourself? Do they house you? The level itself varies pretty dramatically. We've played games where it feels like competitive college baseball, and then we've played some, like, high school games where, if you were playing against the California or Texas powerhouses, you'd have a lot of trouble. So you get a wide range.

MLB: How does training compare to the Minors? I imagine you’re not playing around with Rapsodo machines? 

NZ: Every bullpen I threw in Double-A, there was a Trackman setup. That was maybe just a Brewers thing, but I think that's probably far more common now than not. There's one Trackman in Holland, and I think there are fewer than five in Europe. I know Regensburg's got one now, but the accessibility of data is quite a bit less. I think to some extent the development happens on an even more basic level. Like a lot of guys here don't need that. A lot of teammates that I talk pitching with, it's not so much, ‘Oh, what's my spin on my breaking ball?’ It's a little bit more elemental. Like, ‘How am I moving? Am I strong enough? Am I mobile enough?’ You have to move the big rocks first before you get to the really in-depth detail stuff. And I think it's very easy to say, ‘We have all this tech, so we must be very advanced.’ You still need the human element. You still need someone to translate the tech. 

Noah Zavolas takes the mound for Baseball Jobs Overseas' Globetrotters. Photo courtesy Noah Zavolas. 

MLB: How important are summer events like Haarlem Honkbalweek or Prague Baseball Week?

NZ: Honkbalweek in Haarlem can't be overstated. That's a week-long baseball party in Holland, and I would imagine for Prague is very similar. I sort of swooped in for that tournament. I didn't live in Prague at that time, but I think the ability to show that you can host a professional-style or a European Championship-style tournament in a tiny little town in Holland or Prague is a different story. This is a very important way to again show the game.

When you have a European Championship, it's just European teams. The jewel of Honkbalweek is that you get truly global reach. You have this cultural exchange going that is hard to find anywhere else that's not the Olympics or the WBC. For countries and players that maybe aren't going to have the opportunity to get to those tournaments, this is a way to bring what is a really big global village to any given spot in one of these European countries and show that we play baseball here, too. 

MLB: What surprised you the most now that you live and play baseball in Europe? 

NZ: We bunt a lot. Everyone in Europe bunts a lot, and with all due respect, they're not good at it. That's every team in all of the leagues I've seen. Everyone wants to play small ball, but with very few exceptions, they don't execute very well. You would think those two go hand in hand. ‘We're going to bunt a lot, and we're going to get the bunts down.’ Not so much. 

Parma celebrates its Baseball Champions League Europe title. Photo by WBSC. 

• Bringing the strongest roster in the Asian Games, Korea defeated Japan, 3-1, for the gold medal. Ace Gwak Been, a top MLB prospect (a little hint about what you might read next month), went 6.1 IP with 9 Ks and 1 R, while WBC star Bo Gyeong Moon was 2-for-3 with an RBI. Top 3B prospect Do-Yeong Kim went 2-for-5. Gwak finished second in the tourney in strikeouts with 19, five behind Thailand’s Gabriel Buranasiri (1-0, 0.59 ERA, 15.1 IP, 24 K). 
• In their 50th season, Parma won their 12th Serie A baseball title. 
• If you read Italian – or don’t mind using a translation app for every page (I’ve done it before! It’s not so bad) -- you can read FIBS’ official book commemorating the national team’s World Baseball Classic semifinal run. You can order “Expect Everything” by Corrado Benedetti and Lorenzo Longhi here. I’ve been told that an English-language version is also coming. 
• Huge under-the-radar announcement from France. When they released their roster for their exhibition games against Spain before the Premier12, there was a new coaching staff: Former Czechia manager Mike Griffin and his pitching coach, Corey Lee, have joined (they helped build the Czech program. There's a book about that if you want to read more. Just saying!). Quentin Becquey of Rouen Huskies, who you may remember from our trip to visit the Huskies last year, is also on the coaching staff, as is famed coach-scout-HR-Derby-pitcher Dave Jauss. 
  
  

SEE THIS

Sean Manaea signs autographs in Barcelona. Screengrab via @rfebs on Instagram. Click image to see post. 

Sean Manaea made his way out to the Premier12 Qualifiers in Barcelona and modeled Spain's jersey. No idea if he is eligible for the team in any way, but something for Spanish fans to dream on ... 

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For tips, hints, or just to talk about international baseball, find me @michaelsclair on X/Twitter and IG or email me at Michael.Clair@MLB.com.

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