In December 2027, the Rockets signed 28 yo closer Guan-Cai Yong from Taiwan to a 5 year deal worth up to $24.5M, and a month later in January, signed another 28 year old, OF Kenji Kudo from Japan to a 4 year, $21M contract.
The first month of the season is a time to over-react to small sample sizes, but the early results look promising.
Yong has already appeared in 10 of the 25 games this season, throwing 9.1 innings, and he's K'd 16 batters already for a ridiculous 48.5% K rate. On top of that, he has yet to allow a single hit. Small downside, he's walking 15% of hitters. Yong spoke recently to the Nassau press through his interpreter, and despite his reputation for being a bit dull, was quoted as saying, "I'd love a shot at that punk from Vista, the one nobody else can seem to strike out. I'm very disappointed we don't play those guys until later in the season." His agent later claimed, unsurprisingly, that Yong was mis-quoted.
As for Kudo, Nassau fans have quickly taken a liking to him, and he's turned a few heads around the league, too. Kudo took home the rookie of the month award for April in the NL. He slashed 289/350/478, good for a 118 wRC+, and was solid in CF as well, credited with saving almost 2 runs already.
In addition to Yong and Kudo, Ju-choer Yi is back in the bullpen this season. He signed with Nassau before 2027 out of South Korea, and had a 4.10 ERA in 31 appearances before being sidelined with a finger injury for the second half of last season. He's thrown 4.1 scoreless innings so far in 2028.
Lastly, there's Japanese C Shiro Ueno, who is 25 and signed a minor league deal before the current season. He's currently playing with AAA Havana. Ueno also had a good first month, posting a .921 OPS and throwing out 38.5% of runners. Given the lack of production at C with the big-league club, it seems likely Ueno will have more than a cup of coffee in the bigs later this season.
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