Landers sign Japanese pitcher Takeda to fill Asian quota
Japanese pitcher Shota Takeda poses in front of the logo for the SSG Landers after signing with the Korea Baseball Organization club, Sunday. Courtesy of SSG Landers
The SSG Landers announced their signing of Japanese pitcher Shota Takeda on Sunday to fill their Asian quota for next season.
The Landers said the 32-year-old right-hander agreed to a one-year contract worth $200,000. Takeda had been with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) since 2012.
Starting in 2026, clubs in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) will each be allowed to sign an extra player from an Asian country or Australia — in addition to their usual three foreign-born players.
The Asian quota player must have competed in Asia or in Australia in the season immediately before the year he signs with a KBO team. The South Korean league also has a $200,000 spending cap on the Asian quota player, a figure that includes salary, signing bonus and any buyout fees paid to the player's former team.
The Landers are the third KBO team to acquire an Asian quota player this offseason, following the Hanwha Eagles and the KT Wiz from Thursday.
Takeda, a first-round pick in the 2011 NPB draft, went 8-1 with a 1.07 ERA in 11 outings as a rookie in 2012. He enjoyed his best stretch in 2015-2016, going a combined 27-14 with a 3.05 ERA. Takeda represented Japan at the 2015 Premier12 and again at the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
He last pitched in the NPB in 2023, before missing the entire 2024 season after undergoing elbow surgery. He returned to the mound this year and pitched in six games for the Hawks' minor league club in the Western League.
The Landers said their international scouts watched Takeda pitch in person in August and found no issues with the pitcher's recovery from elbow operation.
"We believe Takeda can join our starting rotation right away," the Landers said. "He has an outstanding work ethic and he can be a mentor for our young pitchers."
The Landers added that Takeda, listed at 187 centimeters on NPB's website, throws his fastball from a high release point, and offers a curve-slider-forkball mix as his secondary option.
The Landers had a solid one-two punch at the top of their rotation this season with the American duo of Drew Anderson and Mitch White. Anderson finished second overall in the KBO with 245 strikeouts — the second-highest single-season total in league history — in just 171 2/3 innings, along with a 12-7 record and a 2.25 ERA. White, a half-Korean pitcher who missed the early part of the season due to injury, went 11-4 with a 2.87 ERA, and recorded 137 strikeouts in 134 2/3 innings.