BALTIMORE Md. (WAVY) – Approaching the August 1 MLB trade deadline, all teams are weighing out their roster options. On Wednesday night, the Baltimore Orioles traded for Oakland Athletics pitcher Shintaro Fujinami in exchange for minor league pitcher Easton Lucas.
Fujinami is in his MLB rookie season, as he played the previous 10 seasons with Japanese pro baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers. Now becoming the second Japanese-born player in Orioles history, after Koji Uehara who played for Baltimore 2009-2011.
Fujinami, who’s finishing up his first season in the major leagues, struggled when he first arrived from Japan. Over the past few months, he has shown strides of improvement and even contributed to the team’s success as a starter.
What does this mean for the Norfolk Tides? Major league teams in contention look to make moves before the deadline. Meaning there’s a chance several players could be on different teams to improve their roster.
Being that Baltimore has such a strong farm system, it would not come as a surprise if the Orioles traded away some of their young prospects in exchange for a proven player, as Baltimore chases the postseason.