ORLANDO, Fla. — In a market where money often isn’t enough, the Seattle Mariners may have a slight edge on the field next week when major league teams can begin courting Japanese free agent pitcher Hiroki Kuroda.
Their advantage: catcher Kenji Johjima.
The 32-year-old right-handed pitcher, a free agent after 11 seasons in Japan, has attracted the attention of a half-dozen teams publicly and who knows how many behind the scenes.
Small wonder — his career record is 103-89 with a 3.69 earned run average, and in 224 career starts, he has 74 complete games.
“He’s comparable to Daisuke Matsusaka, except Hiroki probably has a better slider,” said one scout here Thursday. “He could probably be a No. 2-No. 3 starter in a good rotation.”
That, of course, is what most major league teams acknowledged needing here at the general managers meetings, which ended Thursday.
A group of Japanese writers attended the meetings, and though none wanted to be quoted — in Japan, it’s considered gamesmanship to do so — all said Kuroda has talked about signing with a West Coast club.
The Dodgers are one of the teams in the chase, and they are making the most of the fact they already have Japanese pitcher Takashi Saito closing for them.
The Mariners, the Japanese writers insist, have an even bigger edge — Johjima.
With Johjima catching, there would be no miscommunication between Kuroda and his catcher, something many Japanese pitchers have had problems with. In Boston, for instance, Matsusaka has acknowledged he and veteran catcher Jason Varitek struggled much of the first part of the season before settling into a comfortable in-game relationship.
Seattle might have another advantage. In Japan, the Mariners are followed closely in large part because they are the team of Ichiro Suzuki, and many in the media there have reported the team is one good starter away from contention.
“If Kuroda came here and the Mariners won, he would be seen as the Japanese pitcher who helped Ichiro finally get to a World Series,” one Japanese writer said.
Kuroda’s salary in Japan last year was about $2.5 million, and he is expected to seek a deal here worth between $7 million and $10 million a season over three years. Given that veterans like Carlos Silva and Kyle Lohse are looking for four years and close to $50 million, Kuroda could be the bargain of the winter.
Baseball alive in Puerto Rico: Former Mariner Eduardo Perez, now retired from the game, is trying to help keep winter baseball alive in his native Puerto Rico — and has made a good start of it.
With the Puerto Rican Winter League in hiatus this season, Perez approached teams here about using a Puerto Rican baseball complex as a winter academy of sorts, and more than 14 teams, including Seattle, signed up.
The complex will be staffed by former major league players and coaches — including former Mariners pitching coach Rafael Chaves — and have fields for working with infielders, outfielders, pitchers and hitters.
Two Mariners prospects from Puerto Rico, infielders Erick Monzon and Jeffery Dominguez, will use the complex this winter.
A different viewpoint: With all the concern over human growth hormone, which baseball didn’t ban until 2005 — and for which MLB has no test — no one seems quite certain what to do about it.
One-time Mariners first baseman David Segui has an idea. Don’t worry about it.
ESPN’s Mike Fish caught up with Segui, now 41, in Kansas and Segui has no apologies for using HGH in his career, including his time in Seattle.
“I laugh every time I read an article that says it is a performance-enhancer. It doesn’t enhance your performance,” Segui said. “If you’re horse bleep, you are going to be horse bleep when you come off the disabled list — you’re just going to get off the DL quicker.”
Segui compares HGH to cortisone, which baseball allows.
“All the cortisone injections I got in my career, were they performance-enhancing? They served the same purpose as the growth hormone. They get me through the injuries, speed up the healing. So what is the difference?” Segui asked.
Segui said the Mariners medical and training staff never knew about his use of HGH, and that he tried it on the advice of a friend after hurting his hand during a game.
“I’ve been on teams that you couldn’t beg them to give you a cortisone shot, and on teams where before you blinked, the needle is already in your knee,” Segui told ESPN. “So what if you are on a team that didn’t readily give them out — were you at a disadvantage? There’s no such thing as a level playing field. That’s a myth.”
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