The Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Angels struck a trade during the 2022-2023 off-season that sent Hunter Renfroe out west in exchange for three pitching prospects. Milwaukee received Elvis Peguero, Janson Junk, and Adam Seminaris in the deal. Upon completion of the 2023 season one of those pitchers is reportedly seeking a new deal to play in Japan.
Former Los Angeles Angels pitcher and current member of the Milwaukee Brewers 40-man roster Janson Junk is reportedly seeking a contract to play with a Nippon Professional Baseball team.
In a post from Yakyu Cosmopolitan, a social media page that covers Japanese baseball, Janson Junk is reportedly seeking a contract to play with a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team. Yakyu Cosmopolitan lists Junk’s agent as the source of this information.
RHP Janson Junk is seeking a contract with NPB teams, including the SoftBank Hawks, according to his agent.
Junk, 28, is currently on the Milwaukee Brewers 40-man roster. pic.twitter.com/vHOovVnYCo
— Yakyu Cosmopolitan (@yakyucosmo) January 21, 2024
Junk, who just turned 28 years old earlier in January, is a member of the Brewers 40-man roster and has just one minor league option remaining. His big league opportunities a season ago were limited to just 7.1 innings pitched. In the minor leagues he competed at the Triple-A level, tossed 140 innings, and had a 4.18 ERA.
Throughout his professional baseball career Junk has been used as a starting pitcher. He isn’t a high strikeout pitcher (career 7.31 K:9) and his ground ball rate has fluctuated throughout his career to the point where he isn’t a consistent ground ball pitcher (GB rate of 40.3% in 2023, and 47% throughout his career). Velocity wise he did touch 96 MPH in game action last year and there is some speculation that Milwaukee is looking to transition him into the bullpen.
For a player who is on the fringe of the Brewers big league roster going overseas would allow him an opportunity to showcase his skills on Japan’s biggest baseball stage. It’s unclear if his decision to pursue playing in Japan is related to the rumors surrounding his potential shift from a starter to a reliever, but this will be one story to monitor as spring training draws near.
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1 Comment
Ironic that great Japanese players have to wait until they are around that age to come here and make the big bucks, while the players here have to turn to Japan to see if they can kickstart a career that never got off the ground. Worked for Lindblom but he still never made it back here.
Frees up a spot.