{"id":19740,"date":"2025-05-11T23:44:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-11T23:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/19740\/"},"modified":"2025-05-11T23:44:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-11T23:44:18","slug":"npbs-chunichi-dragons-sign-kyle-muller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/19740\/","title":{"rendered":"NPB’s Chunichi Dragons Sign Kyle Muller"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Chunichi Dragons have signed left-hander Kyle Muller<\/a>, according to multiple reports out of Japan.\u00a0 Muller elected free agency after he was outrighted off the Athletics\u2019 40-man roster at the end of the season, and he\u2019ll now explore a new chapter of his career in Nippon Professional Baseball.<\/p>\n

A second-round pick for the Braves in the 2016 draft, Muller was a regular on Baseball Prospectus\u2019 top-100 prospect lists during his time in Atlanta\u2019s farm system, though his numbers in the minors were more solid than dominant.\u00a0 Muller made his MLB debut in 2021 and posted a 5.14 ERA across 12 games and 49 innings with Atlanta in 2021-22 before the Braves sent him to the A\u2019s as part of the three-team trade<\/a> in December 2022 that saw Sean Murphy<\/a> wind up in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Given a greater opportunity to start in Oakland, Muller posted a rough 7.60 ERA in 77 innings in 2023, losing his rotation job in the wake of his struggles.\u00a0 The southpaw was used only as a reliever in 2024 and posted a 4.01 ERA and five percent walk rate over 49 1\/3 innings, with the improved control a big step forward given how walks had been a major issue for Muller in his previous big league work.\u00a0 Never much of a strikeout pitcher, Muller\u2019s 17.8% strikeout rate in 2024 almost exactly matched his 17.9% career mark.<\/p>\n

Since Muller is out of minor league options, the Athletics had to designate him for assignment and then outright him a first time in August.\u00a0 The lack of option years will be an obstacle for Muller going forward in terms of North American baseball, and if perhaps faced with a 2025 season spent bouncing around DFA limbo and the waiver wire, pitching for the Dragons on a guaranteed deal probably carried extra appeal.\u00a0 Muller is still only 27, so there\u2019s plenty of time for a potential return to the majors if he pitches well in NPB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chunichi Dragons have signed left-hander Kyle Muller, according to multiple reports out of Japan.\u00a0 Muller elected free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2302],"tags":[5,9091,2353,2352],"class_list":{"0":"post-19740","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-npb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-kyle-muller","10":"tag-nippon-professional-baseball","11":"tag-npb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114491861572039792","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}