After 10 years in affiliated ball and two seasons in Japan’s Nippon Skilled Baseball league, infielder Gosuke Katoh is buying and selling in his enjoying tools for a gig behind the scenes. Days after saying his retirement, Katoh revealed on his Instagram account that he has taken a job within the Blue Jays entrance workplace.
Katoh, 30, was born and raised in California, shifting from the Bay Space to San Diego as a younger little one. The Yankees chosen him out of highschool within the second spherical of the 2013 draft, and he spent the subsequent seven years working his means up the minor league ladder of their system. He elected minor league free company after the 2019 marketing campaign and proceeded to bounce between the Marlins, Padres, and Blue Jays organizations earlier than lastly getting the prospect to make his main league debut. He made Toronto’s Opening Day roster in 2022, showing in eight video games earlier than he was designated for task in early Might. Throughout 11 plate appearances, he went 1-for-7 with three walks and a sacrifice bunt, scoring twice and hanging out solely as soon as. The Mets claimed him off of waivers, and though they briefly recalled him from Triple-A for a handful of days, he by no means appeared in one other massive league sport. New York DFA’d and outrighted him in June and launched him on the finish of the yr.
Following the 2022 season, Katoh entered the NPB draft. (As a Japanese citizen, he had no alternative however to be drafted earlier than he might signal with an NPB membership.) The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, his favourite crew rising up, chosen him within the third spherical, and he performed for the Fighters in 2023 and ’24. Over these two years, he appeared in 90 video games for the Fighters and one other 64 with their minor league farm crew within the Japanese League. Sadly, he had a very tough yr on the plate this previous season. Over 28 NPB video games, he slashed .172/.238/.190 with one run, one RBI, and one extra-base hit.
Final Sunday, Katoh introduced his retirement on Instagram, and yesterday, he revealed that he’ll be reuniting with the Blue Jays to tackle an as-of-yet-unspecified position within the entrance workplace. The crew has but to substantiate the information itself or present any additional particulars about Katoh’s position.
