# Ariel Martínez has a promising future in Japan's Professional League

**Date:** 07/07/2020

After connecting three singles in four at-bats, scoring a run and starting Sunday's game for the Chunichi Dragons as the starting catcher, there is no doubt that the future of Cuban Ariel Martínez in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) looks very promising.

Until now, all foreigners who have attempted to work regularly behind the plate in the Japanese circuit have failed in the attempt, to the point that several of them only played one game in that position.

It's not that the list of foreign catchers who have passed through the league is particularly short. Various sources indicate that up to 16 imports have attempted that role in the NPB's top category.

The first was American "Bucky" Harris Galliard, who arrived in Japan in 1936 with the birth of the country's first professional league. He was followed by his compatriots Jun Hirota (1952), Charlie Hood and Mitsuru Watanabe (1953), Charlie Lewis and Sal Recca (1954), Don Bussan (1955), Noboru Fujishige (1956), Ron Bottler (1959), Dick Kamiya (1961) and Nick Testa (1962).

After a 15-year pause, American Adrian Garrett (1977) landed in the archipelago to repeat the attempt, as did his compatriot Mike Díaz (1989), Dominican Francisco Cabrera (1994), Australian Dave Nillson (2000) and now Martínez.

Even two young Venezuelan catchers were signed in the mid-2010s with the idea of developing them for the future, as is now happening with the Cuban, but none of them managed to be promoted to the top category of the circuit.

We are referring to Kevin Moscatel, who spent two seasons (2013-2014) with the minor league team of the DeNA Stars, and Alejandro Segovia, who lasted only one season (2015) in the affiliate squad of the Rakuten Eagles.

There are several obstacles that make it difficult for foreigners who arrive at the NPB with the intention of earning the starting catcher position for their respective teams.

First and foremost is language. To work regularly behind the plate in the Japanese circuit, the aspirant must be able to communicate well with the pitcher without needing to use an interpreter.

Japanese is particularly complicated to learn for Westerners and unless they dedicate sufficient time to studying it, the most likely outcome is that they will never learn it fluently.

Those who manage to overcome this barrier will then have to face another obstacle that is even greater: the pitching philosophy of the Japanese, which is quite different from that of Western pitchers.

In general terms, the pitching philosophy seen in the Major Leagues and Latin American baseball is that of the law of the strongest. That is, the pitcher challenges the batter with his best pitch, which he also throws down the middle of the plate, and may the strongest win.

In Japan, by contrast, pitchers appeal to the law of the most intelligent. Why risk throwing the ball down the middle of the plate when you can retire batters with bad pitches?

The idea, then, is not to challenge the batter, but to deceive him. Most Japanese pitchers throw only one or two good pitches per at-bat. The rest are pitches that look good but end up falling outside the strike zone.

If foreigners who aspire to be catchers in the NPB don't understand that philosophy and don't adapt to it, they will have a hard time succeeding at their job.

For example, a catcher with good Major League experience cannot arrive in Japan asking local pitchers for a changeup on any count or a fastball down the middle on a 3-2 count. If he does, his failure is guaranteed.

First, because the changeup is a pitch rarely used in Japan; and second because breaking pitches are the best weapons Japanese pitchers have in their arsenal, and therefore they almost always use them on a full count.

To that pair of crucial obstacles we must add other more modest but equally important ones, such as the number of signs used by teams and the preference of pitchers to take the count to 3-2 before throwing another good pitch.

As a consequence of a philosophy that seeks to deceive the batter instead of challenging him, the number of times pitchers take the count to the maximum is exaggeratedly high and any foreign catcher who aspires to keep his position must learn to adapt to that custom and make the best of it.

Despite having completed only a couple of games as catcher with Chunichi, Cuban Martínez seems to have everything necessary to be an exception and become the first import to succeed as a catcher in the Japanese league.

First, because according to his manager he has already learned to communicate well with pitchers in Japanese and that means he has overcome the first of the two major obstacles.

Then, there is the advantage that he arrived in Japan young and was developed for two years in the minor league categories of the team, which gave him enough time to adapt well to the style and philosophy of the game of the Japanese and their pitchers.

If we add to that the fact that he's batting well, something that almost no Japanese catcher does, and he also has the unconditional support of his manager, then we should not be surprised that his future looks so promising.

There is still a long way to go and many things could happen between now and the end of the season, but there is no doubt that the young Caribbean player seems set to make history this year in Japanese baseball.