Cleveland Guardians starter Foster Griffin, acquired before the trade deadline, has just over one year of MLB service time. He is 31, though, so something doesn’t add up.
As it turns out, not every prospect and player gets off to a blistering start in their careers. Sometimes, they have to take a small detour to reach their preferred destination.
In Griffin’s case, his stint in Japan was more of a career revival than a detour. You could say he developed the tools to throw the ball for a living as a young hurler in high school and then in the Kansas City Royals’ minor league system in the late 2010s, but he evolved into a pitcher in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league.
After pitching just seven games in the majors between 2020 and 2022 with the Royals and the Toronto Blue Jays, Griffin embarked on the adventure of his life: another continent, another lifestyle. He embraced the challenge and pitched three seasons with the Yomiuri Giants, with a brilliant 2.57 ERA.
“I’m getting a little bit of a second chance at baseball here,” Griffin remembers thinking about his adventure in Japan, but it could very much apply to his current reality in America, his home country, and in MLB.
He is, after all, getting a second chance at being a major leaguer. The Washington Nationals signed him to a one-year, $5.5 million deal in the offseason after revamping his secondary pitches in Japan, and he rewarded them with a 3.06 ERA and a 12-3 record before the deadline.
Then, the Nationals flipped him to the Guardians for four relatively unknown players at the deadline, most of them minor leaguers, hoping to improve their rotation. He wasn’t so good in his first start in Cleveland, allowing five runs in four innings, but he remains a highly talented and resourceful left-hander.
“Hitters in this league are really good at making adjustments on how you got them out,” Griffin told MLB.com. “Having a deep mix like that definitely helps me understand the pitching aspect of knowing you need to get a guy out more than one way, especially as a starter.”
Griffin throws a cutter, a four-seamer, a sweeper, a sinker, a changeup, a curveball, and a splitter. He may not have elite fastball velocity, but he sure can baffle the opposition with command and a wide array of offerings.
The Guardians hope he can resemble the pitcher he was in Japan and in the first half in Washington in the upcoming stretch run.
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