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Sunday, September 11, 2022

Dragons veteran Kosuke Fukudome to retire after season

Kosuke Fukudome, a former big leaguer and the oldest active NPB player at 45, will retire at the end of the season, the Central League’s Chunichi Dragons said Thursday.

The left-handed hitter spent five years in the majors from 2008 with the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, logging a total of 498 hits and 42 home runs in 596 games.

The outfielder joined the Dragons in 1999 as their top draft pick out of the corporate leagues and won the CL batting title twice as well as the league’s MVP award in 2006 before joining the Cubs as a free agent.

He returned to Japan in 2013 with the CL’s Hanshin Tigers before re-signing with Chunichi ahead of the 2021 season.

With less than a month left to go in the NPB season, Fukudome has a total of 2,450 hits in NPB and the majors combined. In NPB alone, he has batted .286 with 285 home runs and 1,078 RBIs in 2,022 games.

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: September 11, 2022 at 10:14 PM | 3 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
  Tags: kosuke fukudome, npb

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   1. danup Posted: September 12, 2022 at 01:41 AM (#6095804)
Fukudome has barely played this year and hasn't hit since 2019, though it's impressive enough that he hit then. I've seen a number of Japanese players end their careers this way, with a borderline Udonis-Haslem-style fadeout that lasts several years. Is there anything about Japanese roster rules that make that kind of player-coach-y role more plausible, or is it just a difference in how both players and teams feel about the end of stars' careers?
   2. vortex of dissipation Posted: September 12, 2022 at 12:35 PM (#6095827)
Is there anything about Japanese roster rules that make that kind of player-coach-y role more plausible


The active roster in NPB is 29 players, with 25 players being eligible for each game. So a team could carry a player such as Fukudome on the active roster, but not have him be eligible for every game, while keeping him part of the team.
   3. danup Posted: September 12, 2022 at 02:04 PM (#6095838)
Thanks! I thought it might be something like that, but I've never looked into it. Would be a fun thing for MLB to add, I think, if there were some way to ensure it would be used for vets and not a taxi squad full of relievers.

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