KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -Reliever Yasuhiko Yabuta, signed by the Kansas City Royals to a two-year, $6 million contract in the offseason, was optioned to Triple-A Omaha on Wednesday.
Yabuta, a 33-year-old righty who pitched 12 years in Japanese, was 1-3 with a 5.46 ERA in 26 relief appearances. He gave up 38 hits, including five home runs, and walked 17 in 31 1-3 innings.
“It really wasn’t that tough of a decision because he had not gotten the chance to pitch with the regularity for his fastball command,” Royals general manager Dayton Moore said. “In Japan last year he had 10 walks, two which were intentional.
“He’s had trouble with fastball command here. The only way to get fastball command back is go down and pitch. We feel without a doubt it was the right thing to do,” he said.
Manager Trey Hillman, who managed in Japan the previous five years, said Yabuta’s velocity was the same as it was overseas.
“He just wasn’t getting enough reps,” Hillman said. “Just to go out and get loose in the bullpen every now and then, in a way it’s not fair to him to expect him to go out and pitch well.
“I want to provide him with those opportunities to pitch every other day, sometimes two days in a row. I think that will help his effectiveness and his control comeback and when that happens his confidence level will go back up because he does have four major league quality pitches.”
Hillman and Yabuta met Wednesday.
“For me, really it’s a matter of confidence,” he said. “I told him we expected him to get it going sooner than later. It’s difficult for a foreigner, but he’s already had his American transition period. I’m hopeful he doesn’t have to have an Omaha transition period. He needs to go do there and pitch and pitch effectively very quickly. I’m not going to say he was visibly upset, but he was disappointed the same way any other player would be.”
Yabuta was 4-6 with a 2.73 ERA and four saves last season with Chiba Lotte and was given the “best middle-relief award” in the Japan Pacific League.
The Royals activated right-hander Robinson Tejeda, who arrived Wednesday after being claimed a day earlier from the Texas Rangers.
The 26-year-old Tejeda has a 14-17 record with a 5.01 ERA in 63 big leagues games with the Rangers and Philadelphia Phillies.
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