Shinnosuke Ogasawara

Ogasawara was posted in December and will look to make the jump to MLB ahead of his age-27 season. The fact that the lefty still has several years of his prime ahead of him will be appealing to potential suitors, but it's not clear that Ogasawara has enough in his profile to merit much interest. His 3.12 ERA last season was above league-average for NPB (2.96), while his 13.6 K% was well below average (18.8%) - not the sort of performance which says a player is ready to jump to a new level. For his career, Ogasawara's 3.67 ERA is higher even than the likes of Shun Yamaguchi (3.36) and Kohei Arihara (3.37), two pitchers who failed to make an impact in their brief MLB careers, to say nothing of long-term success stories like Masahiro Tanaka (2.67) and Kenta Maeda (2.39). A 5-foot-11 frame and a fastball that sits a modest 91-93 mph are further points against the lefty, though an elite 3.7 BB% does at least provide one reason for MLB teams to think he's a project worth investing in. Read Past Outlooks