{"id":386146,"date":"2026-01-03T21:15:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T21:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/386146\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T21:15:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T21:15:21","slug":"kona-takahashi-will-return-to-japan-instead-of-signing-with-mlb-team-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/386146\/","title":{"rendered":"Kona Takahashi will return to Japan instead of signing with MLB team: Source"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img alt=\"Kona Takahashi holds a baseball in his right hand as he delivers a pitch.\" fetchpriority=\"high\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AP25310074139371-1024x705.jpg\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"responsive\" class=\"image-next-root\" style=\"border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;position:absolute;top:0;left:0;bottom:0;right:0;box-sizing:border-box;padding:0;border:none;margin:auto;display:block;width:0;height:0;min-width:100%;max-width:100%;min-height:100%;max-height:100%;object-fit:cover\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Article_ImageCaptionCredit__mkXi_ article-image-caption-credit Typography_body1__xfKuc inherit Typography_base__jzSqr\">Kona Takahashi has a 3.39 ERA over 11 seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Yosuke Hayasaka \/ The Yomiuri Shimbun via Associated Press<\/p>\n<p>Right-handed pitcher Kona Takahashi, whose posting window closes on Sunday, is going back to Nippon Professional Baseball, a league source told The Athletic.<\/p>\n<p>Takahashi is set to return to the Seibu Lions and\u00a0is working on a multiyear contract with the ability to opt out and become an international free agent. Such a deal would allow Takahashi to try again at landing with an MLB team, but without a posting fee attached to him, according to a league source.<\/p>\n<p>While pitching for the Lions last season, Takahashi, 28, produced a 3.04 ERA (24 starts, 148 innings). He demonstrated strong control (6.7 percent walk rate), a calling card over his 11-year career. But his strikeout rate dropped to a career-worst 14.3 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Takahashi had a down 2024 season with a 3.87 ERA (15 starts, 81 1\/3 innings), but he pitched well during the previous two seasons with a 2.20 ERA in 2022 and 2.21 ERA in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kona Takahashi has a 3.39 ERA over 11 seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Yosuke Hayasaka \/ The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-386146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}