Shun Yamaguchi Of The Toronto Blue Jays

Yomiuri Giants pitcher Shun Yamaguchi signed a two year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays a couple of weeks ago.  Yamaguchi was the first round pick of the Yokohama Baystars in the high school portion of the 2005 draft out of Yanagaura High School.  He made his ichi-gun debut with the Baystars in June of 2006 but he spent most of his first couple seasons with the farm team.  In 2009 he made 51 appearances as a setup man in the Baystars' bullpen and moved into the closer role the next season, notching 86 saves between 2010 and 2012.  His effectiveness as closer kind of fell apart over the next season and a half though and he was moved into the starting rotation in the second half of the 2014 season and remained there for the remaining seasons he was in Yokohama.

Following the 2016 season he left as a free agent and moved north to Tokyo, signing a three year deal with the Yomiuri Giants.  His first season was a mixed bag - he missed the first part of the season due to a shoulder injury but combined with Scott Mathieson and Arquimedes Caminero to no hit the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.  He got himself suspended for the second half of the season after a drunken incident resulted in a broken hospital door.  He bounced back in 2018, throwing a no-hitter all by himself on July 27th against Chunichi and had the best season of his career in 2019, going 15-4 with a 2.91 ERA 188 strikeouts in 170 innings.  He led the Central League in wins and strikeouts last year and was named to the Best 9 team.  He also pitched in a Nippon Series and played for Samurai Japan for the first time last year.  He made the All Star team in 2019 after previously making it in 2010 and 2011 (he was selected in 2016 but declined).

His first card was #68 from the 2006 BBM Rookie Edition set.  His other rookie cards from 2006 are BBM 1st Version #320, BBM Baystars #YB02 and #YB79 and Calbee #261.  He's been in either or both of the 1st and 2nd Version sets in every year since his rookie season except 2008.  TradingCardDB.com's list of his cards is here.  Here's some assorted cards from his career:

2006 BBM Rookie Edition #68

2006 BBM 1st Version #320

2009 BBM Baystars #YB03

2011 BBM All Stars #A51

2013 Calbee #108

2015 Baystars Team Issue #105

2018 Epoch One #422/YG-064

2019 BBM Giants #G72

I want to note that he's wearing a Shonan Searex uniform on his 2006 BBM 1st Version card.  The Baystars had sold the naming rights to their farm team to Shonan between 2001 and 2010 so they were called the Searex during that period.

The Epoch One card commemorates his no-hitter against the Dragons.