{"id":669877,"date":"2026-04-08T08:05:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/669877\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T08:05:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T08:05:32","slug":"former-blue-jays-all-star-closer-cut-from-opening-day-roster-in-npb-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/669877\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Blue Jays All-Star closer cut from Opening Day roster in NPB"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Former Blue Jays All-Star closer cut from Opening Day roster in NPB <\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From 2015-18, Roberto Osuna was one of the best closers in the Majors with the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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He never posted an ERA above 3.38 and earned his lone All-Star appearance in 2017, recording 39 saves with 83 strikeouts in 64 innings.<\/p>\n

Things took a turn for the worse in 2018 when MLB suspended him 75 games for violating the league’s domestic violence policy. A midseason trade sent him to the Houston Astros<\/a>, ending his tenure in Toronto.<\/p>\n

This past summer, former Astros general manager Jeff Lunhow, fired in 2020 for his role in Houston’s sign-stealing scandal, stated that he regretted agreeing to the deal for Osuna<\/a> because of his suspension for domestic violence.<\/p>\n

Osuna is struggling in Japan<\/p>\n

Osuna signed a contract with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Chiba Lotte Marines in 2022 and has spent the past two seasons<\/a> with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.<\/p>\n

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However, Gajin Baseball on X reports that the 31-year-old closer from Mexico was left off the Hawks’ Opening Day roster for 2026.<\/p>\n

“Currently one of the highest-paid players in NPB,” the Japanese baseball dedicated account wrote<\/a> on Wednesday. “He has not lived up to his billing since signing the contract, and was removed from the closer role during interleague. There are rumors that he may be cut.”<\/p>\n

Osuna posted a 4.15 ERA with just 16 strikeouts in 26 innings last year, and is not the same caliber of pitcher he was with the Blue Jays.<\/p>\n

It appears he will start the season with the Hawks’ farm club or will be released from the team.<\/p>\n

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More MLB news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Blue Jays All-Star closer cut from Opening Day roster in NPB originally appeared on The Sporting News.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2302],"tags":[5,8766,39,341,4660,54,2102,6,4,2353,2352,40,536,26034,110,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-669877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-npb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chiba-lotte-marines","10":"tag-dodgers","11":"tag-domestic-violence","12":"tag-fukuoka-softbank-hawks","13":"tag-houston-astros","14":"tag-hunter-greene","15":"tag-jesus-luzardo","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-nippon-professional-baseball","18":"tag-npb","19":"tag-phillies","20":"tag-reds","21":"tag-roberto-osuna","22":"tag-roki-sasaki","23":"tag-toronto-blue-jays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669877","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=669877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}