Yamaguchi Shun (36), who once dominated the Japanese professional baseball and advanced to the major leagues, decided to retire from active duty without finding a team to belong to.
Japan’s Kyodo News reported on the 29th that “Shun Yamaguchi, who became a free agent at the Yomiuri Giants after finishing last season, has decided to retire from active play.” Yamaguchi showed a willingness to extend his active career by conducting individual training, but it is known that he ended his career because there was no team to call him.
On October 25 last year, Yamaguchi received a notice of release from Yomiuri, who finished fourth in the Central League (68 wins, 72 losses, 3 draws). Yamaguchi played only one game in the first team last year, his 17th year in Japan and the United States. On April 8, he made a relief mound against the Yakult Swallows and scored two scoreless innings, then disappeared from the first team, suffered a right knee injury along with sluggish performance, and concentrated on rehabilitation in the second group.
Yamaguchi was the ace representing Yomiuri and Japan in the past. In the 2019 season, he won three crowns as a pitcher, including the most wins (15 wins), win rate (.789), and strikeouts (188). The contract, the dream of advancing to the United States has come true. However, contrary to his expectations, he suffered a sluggish performance with an ERA of 8.06 in 17 games, 2 wins and 4 losses, and he was assigned the nomination in one year.
Yamaguchi, who suffered from the pain of being released, tried again in the big leagues through a split contract with the San Francisco Giants in February 2021, but showed a 6.17 ERA without winning 5 games in the minor league Triple A. After failing to be promoted to the big leagues, he decided to return to Yomiuri, his hometown, in June.
In the first year of his return, Yamaguchi was unable to reproduce his heyday, with an average ERA of 3.56 and 2 wins and 8 losses in 15 games. His annual salary, which was 230 million yen (about 2.2 billion won) in 2019, was also cut to 60 million yen (about 600 million won). In addition, the bad news of Corona 19 confirmation before the season overlapped and had a difficult time. 메이저사이트
Yamaguchi’s will to extend his active duty was strong. After getting rid of the knee injury through his rehabilitation, he showed off his strength in bullpen pitching for finishing training in December of last year. In an interview with Sankei Sports at the time, he said, “I haven’t burned yet. Therefore, I believe that there will be clubs that will give me a chance. I will wait,” he said. However, the club looking for him did not appear, and in the end, his active career came to an end after playing 1 game in the 1st team last year.