Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Los Angeles Dodgers was solid in July, and the San Diego Padres’ Yu Darvish had a bounce-back outing that offered reason for optimism, but the remainder of the Japanese import pitchers on MLB teams not named Shohei Ohtani had performances that ranged from spotty to not so good.
Ohtani continued to ramp up as a pitcher in his gradual return from Tommy John surgery and did well in limited action. However, Shota Imanaga of the Chicago Cubs, Kodai Senga of the New York Mets, Tomoyuki Sugano of the Baltimore Orioles, Yusei Kikuchi of the Los Angeles Angels, and San Diego’s Yuki Matsui were inconsistent at best.
Ohtani hit nine home runs in July, while designated hitter Seiya Suzuki of the Chicago Cubs had an off month, though he continued to exhibit power. Masataka Yoshida of the Boston Red Sox finally made his 2025 debut after recovering from shoulder surgery, but he was mostly ineffective. Heralded young Dodger pitcher Roki Sasaki remained on the Injured List with a shoulder impingement but is aiming for a late-August return.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto
In five starts, Yamamoto was 2-1 with a 2.70 earned-run mark. Four of his five starts were solid. He lasted just two-thirds of an inning against Milwaukee, giving up four hits and three earned runs, but he allowed just five earned runs and 16 hits in the remaining 26 innings.
In a 5-2 win over Cincinnati on July 28, Yamamoto gave up just one run on four hits while striking out nine over seven innings.
“He was fantastic,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It seemed like he had all of his pitches working.”
Yamamoto now has a season record of 9-7 with a 2.63 earned-run mark and a FIP (fielding independent pitching) mark of 2.98. His WHIP is a low 1.05.
His splitter remains his most effective pitch, with batters averaging just .151 against it. He has thrown the splitter and four-seam fastball 63 percent of the time, and hitters are averaging a combined .171 against them. His overall Batting Average Against is .195, and his barrel rate and hard-hit rate are lower than in 2024.
Yu Darvish
Darvish, now 38, finally got back on the mound on July 7 after dealing with an elbow problem since spring training, but the results were poor until his final outing of the month against the Mets on July 30. In that game, he went seven innings and allowed no runs on just two hits while striking out seven batters. That marked his 204th career victory between Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan and MLB, breaking a tie with Hiroki Kuroda for the most all-time.
“When he’s throwing all of his pitches for strikes, he can be tough,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said afterward. “It looked like we were guessing once he started throwing everything . . . He kept us off balance, and everything was working for him.”
In 16.2 innings over his previous four starts, Darvish had been 0-3 with a 9.18 ERA and 1.80 WHIP. In that span, he gave up 21 hits, 17 runs (all earned), and nine walks while striking out just 11. He also hit two batters. He gave up eight runs against St. Louis on July 24.
However, Padres manager Mike Shildt said at the time that Darvish’s metrics had checked out favorably. Though his velocity wasn’t quite back into the upper 90s, other numbers indicate “everything is trending in a very normal Yu Darvish manner.” The velocity on Darvish’s fastball, which he has thrown just 9.7 percent of the time, has averaged 94 mph.
Darvish did not make a rehab start in the final phase of his recovery from elbow issues, throwing only simulated games against Single-A hitters, so he wasn’t fully built up.
Shohei Ohtani
Ohtani had a down month from a hitting standpoint, but continued to ramp up as a pitcher, though he was removed from his start against Cincinnati on July 30 after suffering what he described as cramps in his hip.
As a designated hitter, Ohtani averaged just .204 in July with a .321 on-base percentage. His power was still evident, though, as he hit nine home runs, drove in 19 runs, and posted a .505 slugging percentage. He also tied a Dodgers club record by homering in five consecutive games. For the season, Ohtani is averaging .269 with a .978 OPS. He has 38 home runs – second in MLB behind Seattle catcher Cal Raleigh – and 73 RBIs.
On the mound, he made four starts, going a season-high three innings in three of them. For the month, he had a 2.45 ERA, giving up 11 hits and four walks in 11 innings and striking out 14 batters. He pitched two scoreless innings against Houston on July 5, his 31st birthday.
He was trying to stretch into the fourth inning of his start against Cincinnati when he was pulled from the game after throwing six consecutive balls.
Ohtani and manager Dave Roberts blamed the cramping on the heat. The temperature was 90 degrees with a heat index of 100.
“I just saw a funky throw,” Roberts said. “The follow-through just didn’t look right. And then he threw another pitch, and I just didn’t see the finish the right way. It was very concerning because I didn’t know what it was. He said it was his hip. I talked to him, and he said it was the humidity. So I feel better knowing that.”
Overall, Ohtani is 0-0 with a 2.40 ERA and 1.27 WHIP. He has struck out 17 batters in 15 innings and allowed 14 hits. Thus far – in an admittedly small sample size and in short outings – he is averaging 98 mph on his fastballs, which would be the highest of his career. Opponents’ hard-hit percentage is just 26.8, far lower than in his previous MLB seasons.
Shota Imanaga
Imanaga made six starts in July, with mixed results. In starts against the Yankees and Red Sox on June 13 and 19, respectively, he allowed just seven hits and one run in 14 innings. However, he gave up 17 hits and 10 runs over eight innings in his final two outings, against the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee.
He finished the month with a 4-2 mark and 4.32 ERA and gave up nine home runs during July. The barrel rate, average exit velocity, launch angle, and hard-hit rate by opposing batters have increased this year.
A positive sign, though, is that Imanaga walked just two batters in 33.1 innings during July. His walk rate had been much higher earlier in the season, but is now 1.84 per nine innings, closer to the 1.5/9 mark of a year ago.
For the season, he stands 8-4 with a 3.25 earned-run mark. His WHIP is a very low 1.04.
Tomoyuki Sugano
In his first MLB season at age 35, Sugano was solid in April and May but has struggled the last two months, putting up a 6.20 ERA in June and a 5.75 mark in July.
During those two months, he has allowed 59 hits, 10 home runs, and 18 walks in 45 innings. In four July starts, he was 2-1, getting wins over the Mets and Colorado Rockies and taking a loss against Texas in which he gave up 10 hits and six earned runs in 4.2 innings.
He did do well in his final start of the month against the Rockies, though, giving up four hits and one run in six innings.
“[I] made some adjustments in the training,” Sugano said after that game via interpreter Yuto Sakurai, “but usually every summer my feeling gets better, so I think that’s where it’s coming from. I’ve experienced good times and bad times, especially the past month. [In] June, I went through some struggles, but I can overcome that moving forward.”
Expected to be a back-of-the-rotation starter when he signed a one-year contract in the off-season, Sugano has been relied on more heavily because Baltimore’s rotation has been problematic.
For the season, Sugano stands 8-5 with a 4.38 earned-run mark and 1.33 WHIP.
Kodai Senga
Senga was placed on the 15-day Injured List on June 13 because of a Grade 1 right hamstring strain, but he returned to action on July 11 and made three starts during the month, posting a 5.25 ERA in 12 innings.
He pitched four scoreless innings in his first outing against Kansas City, but allowed seven earned runs, seven hits, and eight walks in a combined eight innings in his next starts against the Angels and San Francisco Giants.
Mets’ manager Carlos Mendoza said he isn’t concerned, though.
“This is a guy that the more reps he gets, the better he’s going to get,” Mendoza said. “I’m not concerned. He’s too good of a pitcher, and he’ll figure it out. I think it’s more like him coming back from injury — he continues to progress and move in the right direction.”
Senga has been outstanding much of this season following a 2024 campaign in which he made just one regular-season appearance because of injuries. He is 7-3 with a 2.00 ERA.
The forkball remains his best out pitch, as batters are averaging just .107 against it.
Yusei Kikuchi
Kikuchi followed a very good June that helped him land a spot on the All-Star team with a middling July performance in which he was 0-1 with a 4.88 ERA and allowed 40 hits and 10 walks over 30.1 innings.
Overall, he is 4-7 with a 3.30 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP. Kikuchi’s expected ERA is a run higher at 4.32. His opponents’ batting average on balls in play is .319 – the highest of his MLB career – and his average of 3.80 walks per nine innings much higher than the 2.25 of a year ago and the 2.58 from 2023. In addition, his hard-hit rate is 37.8 percent compared to 36 percent each of the previous two seasons.
Seiya Suzuki
Suzuki’s batting average has trended steadily downward this season. He batted .321 in April, .259 in May, .226 in June and .220 in July. He got just three hits in his last 26 at-bats in July.
The good news is that he is still hitting for power. He had four home runs and 12 RBIs in July, and his season totals of 26 and 81, respectively, are significantly more than his previous yearly totals, with two months left in the regular season. His 81 RBIs tie him for the sixth spot in MLB.
In addition, Suzuki has increased his slugging percentage and isolated power numbers compared to his three previous MLB campaigns.
For the season, he is averaging .249 with an .825 OPS.
As an aside, Suzuki was called for an unusual pitch-clock violation in a game against Kansas City on July 22. On his first plate appearance, with a full count, he fouled a pitch off himself, hitting his upper leg region in multiple spots. He briefly walked away from the plate and was then ruled out for a pitch-clock violation, the Cubs’ third out to end the first inning.
Masataka Yoshida
Yoshida finally returned to action in early July following a slow recovery from off-season labral repair of his right shoulder. The Red Sox had held him out at the start of the season because they wanted him to be able to throw from the outfield. So far, he’s been a work in progress.
He went 3-4 in his first game against Colorado on July 9, but has gone just 8-42 since then and is averaging .239 with a .625 OPS.
Interestingly, he has worked out some at first base, though the Red Sox say it’s just so he could be ready in an emergency situation. Thus far, he has appeared in one game as an outfielder, with the rest coming as a designated hitter and, in one instance, as a pinch-hitter.
Yuki Matsui
Matsui, used primarily in low-leverage situations by the Padres, has had a difficult couple of months. Thanks to a couple of rough outings in the latter part of June, Matsui ended with a 7.71 ERA that month and followed that with a 4.91 ERA in July. He was used less often, as well, pitching in just eight innings compared to an average of 10 innings per month over the first half of the season.
For the season, his marks are 2-1 with a 4.76 and 1.41 WHIP. Those compare to a 4-2/3.72/1.16 in his rookie year of 2024.
Though he was a closer in Japan with the Rakuten Golden Eagles, racking up 236 saves in 10 seasons, he is still being used primarily in setup situations or to finish games when the team is behind or well ahead. It doesn’t appear that he will be part of the late-inning mix unless the bullpen suffers a rash of injuries.
Roki Sasaki
Sasaki has not pitched in a game since May 9 because of a right shoulder impingement and has been on the injured list since May 14, but he’s been throwing and may return to the mound in the relatively near future. The current expectation is late August.
The Dodgers don’t have a specific timeline for his return, but manager Dave Roberts said Sasaki threw 39 pitches in a bullpen session on July 23 and was slated for another session over the weekend. After that, the next step will be facing live hitters at the team’s minor league facility.
“This is the time for him to figure things out, as he’s building up,” Roberts said. “From what I’ve heard from the pitching guys, the delivery is much more consistent. I think that lends itself to the strength that he has now. He’s gotten a lot stronger.
“[Sasaki is] obviously very talented,” Roberts added. “I think we haven’t come close to seeing what’s in there, even for this season.”
Sasaki, who came to MLB with high expectations, has a 1-1 record, 4.72 ERA, 6.17 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP), and 1.49 WHIP. He’s issued 22 bases on balls in 34.1 innings while striking out just 24. Opposing batters’ hard-hit rate is 43.8 percent.
NOTES: Pitcher Shinnosuke Ogasawara, signed to a two-year deal with Washington in the off-season, made his MLB debut on July 6 but was returned to AAA Rochester after two difficult starts. In a combined 6.2 innings against Boston and Milwaukee, Ogasawara was 0-1 with a 9.45 ERA. He allowed 11 hits and seven earned runs during that time . . . Micah Yonamine, grand-nephew of legendary Wally Yonamine, is with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters’ development squad and averaging .269 with three home runs, 10 RBIs, and a .763 OPS . . . Kenta Maeda is 3-4 with a 4.97 ERA in 12 starts after joining the AAA Iowa Cubs on a minor league contract. That’s an improvement, though, over the 7.20 ERA he had a month ago, and he lowered his walk rate in July . . . Female pitcher Ayami Sato of the Toronto Maple Leafs is 1-0 with a 12.51 ERA in 12 appearances (two starts) . . . 18-year-old Japanese two-way (pitcher/infielder) prospect Shotaro Morii, now with the Athletics’ team in the Arizona Complex (Rookie) League, has a slash line of .258/.399/.384 after 39 games. He’s hit three home runs and driven in 27 runs . . . Rintaro Sasaki, Japan’s all-time high school home run leader, is playing for Cotuit in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League and averaging .265 with two homers and six RBIs after 10 games . . . Itsuki Takemoto, who pitched in the Koshien tournament as a high-schooler with Chiben Wakayama High School and then went to the University of Hawaii, is playing with in the Cape Cod League and is 0-2 with a 4.05 ERA in five appearances (four starts) . . . Relief pitcher Koyo Aoyagi signed a minor-league deal with the Philadelphia Phillies in the off-season, was later sent to AAA Lehigh Valley and then to AA Reading. With the latter, he is 1-2 with a 6.91 ERA in four starts . . . Shintaro Fujinami, who took a minor-league deal with an invitation to spring training from the Seattle Mariners, walked 26 batters in 18.2 innings for AAA Tacoma before being released on July 18. He later signed with the Yokohama DeNa BayStars and is with the club’s development team. He’s pitched just one inning so far.
