Will The Mariners Hisashi Iwakuma Pitch At The WBC For Team Japan?
Team Japan is still trying to figure out who is going to pitch for them in the World Baseball Classic this March. At the moment Japan is missing the Mariners, Hisashi Iwakuma. Will it remain that way Before lineups must be set?
For the second World Baseball Classic in a row, it looks like the Mariners Hisashi Iwakuma will opt to forgo the tournament. There is no official word on his decision yet, but if history is any indication, I wouldn’t expect Iwakuma to take part in the international competition.
The last time Iwakuma had the opportunity to represent his country in the WBC in 2013, he decided to skip the contest because he had just signed a lucrative two-year fourteen million dollar contract extension with the Mariners, and thought he should focus on preparing for the team.
Iwakuma’s absence, along with another Japanese ace, Yu Darvish, was a significant part of why Japan didn’t become three-peat champions, after winning the tournament in 2006 and 2009; Iwakuma was part of the championing 2009 squad.
But for Iwakuma, the choice to not participate paid off. Just after the completion of the 2013 tournament, Iwakuma tore up the MLB earning him fourteen wins and an ERA of 2.66.
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Those numbers, and others injected him not only into the Cy Young conversation, where he finished third on the ballot, he also earned enough votes to be ranked ninteenth in AL MVP voting.
Fast forward four years, Iwakuma is coming off a disappointing year where he had his lowest SO/9 (6.6), highest HR/9 (1.3), highest H/9 (9.9), and his highest ERA 4.12, which is nearly .60 higher than his next highest ERA.
That, matched with the fact that Iwakuma is entering another important year -now trying to prompt the Mariners to take him on for one more season on a team option- it is not likely that the former all-star will participate alongside his country in this years World Baseball Classic.
For Team Japan it would feel like deja vu, if Iwakuma decides not to play. As of today, it looks like they will again be missing a second ace, except this time it would be Masahiro Tanaka instead of Darvish, although Darvish might miss the tournament as well.
However, if the decision not to play in the WBC has the same effects as it did four years ago, Mariners fans will have one more reason to cheer during a season that has ever-growing expectations and excitement surrounding it.
