Key Red Sox signing off to historic start
The Boston Red Sox mad a big move this offseason in paying a huge price to bring Masataka Yoshida to the major leagues from Japan.
It has worked out perhaps even better than expected.
The Red Sox signed Yoshida to a five-year, $90 million contract, and when combined with the $15.4 million posting fee it was more than a $100 million investment.
For that price the Red Sox needed to get a star.
They got one.
Not only has Yoshida been off to a great start in reshaping the Red Sox lineup, he is doing things to start his career that almost no other player in baseball history has done.
Like Yoshida, Ichiro was a veteran in coming over from Japan and had a distinguished career in the second best pro baseball league in the world. So he is not a true rookie in the classic sense.
Yoshida is already 29 years old, but he has been the Red Sox best hitter through the first 50 games by a sizable margin and one of the biggest reasons they have a winning record entering play on Sunday.
It might not be enough to get them a playoff spot in a brutally tough American League East this season. But he is definitely looking like a player that has a place in Boston for the foreseeable future. They paid a big price and took a big risk, but it is paying off with a big reward.
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