Earlier in 2025, SF Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey made a trip to Japan to scout for potential talent in that market. Could this trip end up paying off this offseason with several Japanese players likely to be posted?
This trip, which took place in April, was reported back in July but has been brought up more recently both by Giants reporter Andrew Baggarly in a recent column and Giants insider Alex Pavlovic on a recent episode of the Giants Talk podcast.
As Baggarly wrote in his recent piece: “Posey quietly made a trip to Japan earlier this summer because he wants to remain invested in that market.”
Posey made stealthy trip to Japan to scout for SF Giants talent
The Giants are reportedly expected to be in the mix for slugger Munetaka Murakami. Another big hitter likely to be posted this offseason is Kazuma Okamoto.
It is hard not to get excited about adding a hitter like either of these guys to the Giants lineup. Murakami has a career slash line in Japan of .273/.394/.550 with 265 home runs and 755 runs batted in.
As for Okamoto, he has similar career numbers in Japan with a .274/.355/.501 slash line with 277 homers and 872 RBI.
However, both players are primarily corner infielders and the Giants are already covered at third base with Matt Chapman and at first base with Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge. Maybe the Giants could put Okamoto in one of the corner outfield spots but it is still an imperfect fit.
Even if the Giants do not make a run at either of these sluggers, there are some interesting pitchers likely to be posted. Baggarly mentions two pitchers, Tatsuya Imai and Hiroto Saiki, as possibilities if they end up being posted by their respective teams.
We will see if Posey’s trip ends up bearing any fruit, but it is still encouraging to see that he and the front office are remaining active in the Japanese market. After the fruitless attempts at signing Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki in recent years, it would be easy to just give up and cede the entire country to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
It would come as no shock if a lot of these players ended up signing with the Dodgers ultimately, but the Giants have to keep trying. Even if they land just one of these international talents it could make a world of difference.
Not much fanfare was made of Posey’s trip to Japan, but we could that trip reap some benefits this offseason if the Giants are able to land a key player from Japan.
AloJapan.com