I mentioned a few weeks back that Masahiro Tanaka was returning to the Eagles after seven years with the Yankees. This past week another player officially returned to his old team from MLB and there's another player who is possibly returning.
Yoshihisa Hirano is returning to the Orix Buffaloes after spending the past three seasons in MLB - 2018-19 with the Arizona Diamondbacks and 2020 with the Seattle Mariners. Additionally Shun Yamaguchi was released by the Toronto Blue Jays after just one season with them and is reportedly being offered a contract by his old team the Yomiuri Giants. (To be honest, I'm not sure Yamaguchi has any choice but to return to the Giants since he was posted. Hirano was a free agent.) Here are cards of each of them from 2017 - the last year Hirano was in Japan and the first year Yamaguchi was with the Giants:
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| 2017 BBM Icons-Japan Pride #17 |
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| 2017 BBM Giants #G17 |
The NPB returns of Tanaka, Hirano and Yamaguchi means that there will only be seven Japanese players in MLB in 2021 - Yu Darvish (Padres), Kenta Maeda (Twins), Shohei Ohtani (Angels), Yusei Kikuchi (Mariners), Shogo Akiyama (Reds), Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh (Rays) and Kohei Arihara (Rangers). That number may grow by one if Hirokazu Sawamura signs with the Red Sox.
UPDATE - Way late on updating this but Yamaguchi signed a deal with the Giants all right but it was the San Francisco ones and not Yomiuri so he's still in North America.
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