In total, there have now been 55 Japanese players: 43 pitchers, six outfielders, four infielders, one catcher plus the hybrid Ohtani. The history of Japanese players in MLB is a work in progress. Prior to Shohei Ohtani, the Jays were one of the front-runners for another Japanese superstar, Yu Darvish. Japanese connections Shohei Ohtani is among seven active Japanese-born major leaguers, none of them position players with Ichiro Suzuki all but retired. Here are a few that Shohei Ohtani has to shoot for: .311 Career batting average by Ichiro Suzuki, whose 3,089 hits would seem like a stretch.

Source: thestar May 21, 2018 22:35 UTC