Chaim Bloom Shares What Attracted Red Sox To Masataka Yoshida

Masataka Yoshida is officially a member of the Boston Red Sox, though those in power have expected that to be the case for a while.

When speaking at Yoshida’s introductory press conference on Thursday at Fenway Park, Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom made it clear his team had been scouting the Japanese standout for far longer than the short-lived posting period.

“We’ve watched Masataka for a while,” Bloom said Thursday, per team-provided video. “For us, the thing that really stood out from all angles — from the scouting angle, from breaking down the performance — is just the quality of the at-bat. There’s a very unique combination of contact skills and strike-zone discipline, and an ability to impact the baseball that we feel has a chance to really impact the game at the Major League level.”

Bloom has been very complimentary of Yoshida since the initial report.

Yoshida comes to Boston as a decorated player from Japan. In seven seasons in the Pacific League, Yoshida batted .327 with a .960 OPS, slugging 133 home runs and 467 RBIs. He was a two-time batting champion at Nippon Professional Baseball, made four All-Star games and helped lead Japan to a 2020 Olympic gold medal.

The deal appeared to come together fairly quickly. Yoshida was posted by his club in Japan, the Orix Buffaloes, on Dec. 7, at 8 a.m. ET. His deal with the Red Sox was initially reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan less than 12-hours later. Though the 29-year-old outfielder had more than 40 days to come to an agreement, it ultimately took less than one. Yoshida explained what attracted him to the Red Sox.

The left-handed batter recorded a .447 on-base percentage in 119 games (508 plate appearances) last season. He hit 21 home runs with 88 RBIs and struck out 41 times.