New York Mets relief pitcher Shintaro Fujinami has left the team due to a family matter, the team announced Friday afternoon.
The 29-year-old right-hander has flown home to Japan and won't return to Spring Training camp for a few days, per MLB.com's Anthony DiComo. He is expected to be back in the United States with plenty of time to spare before Opening Day on March 28.
The Mets signed Fujinami to a one-year contract back on Feb. 2. He was coming off an up-and-down rookie season split between the Oakland Athletics and Baltimore Orioles.
Fujinami's 2024 base salary is set to be $3.35 million, which could reach $4.2 million if he hits all of his incentives. The reliever made $3.25 million in 2023.
Fujinami, a three-time All-Star in Nippon Professional Baseball, opened last year as a starter, going 0-4 with a 14.40 ERA and just as many walks as strikeouts.
Across his final 20 outings with the Athletics, however, Fujinami had a 3.32 ERA and 3.7 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Fujinami had two shaky appearances after landing in Baltimore via trade, only to boast a 2.92 ERA and 3.2 strikeout-to-walk ratio in his next 23 games.
Fujinami ended the regular season with a few rough performances and wound up missing the Orioles' playoff roster.
In 79.0 innings and 64 appearances, Fujinami went 7-8 with a 7.18 ERA, 1.494 WHIP and 9.5 strikeouts per nine innings on the whole in 2023.
The Mets signed two other bullpen arms this offseason on top of Fujinami – Jake Diekman and Jorge López. The club also added Luis Severino, Sean Manaea and Adrian Houser to round out its rotation, which could be without Japanese ace Kodai Senga to start the regular season.
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