Drew Verheigen returned to the Japanese professional baseball league in three years.

 Please refer to Nippon-Ham Fighters' SNS account

This is a baffling 'result'.

Drew Verheigen (34) of the Nippon-Ham Fighters of the Nippon-Ham Baseball (NPB) of Japan started the exhibition game against the Rakuten Golden Eagles on Sunday, and gave up seven hits and five runs in three innings. He did not have a good record of allowing three runs in four innings in the previous two games, but he was no different from the Rakuten team. 안전놀이터

Local media outlet Sponichi Annex said, "He threw 80 pitches until the third inning, allowing four sand dunes due to his disordered control," adding, "He was in a bad shape with 10 hits and eight runs in seven innings, including three games of demonstration games."

Nippon-Ham coach Shinjo Tsuyoshi said on Monday that he will appoint Troy Murphy, who was a candidate for the rotation for the opening game, as an intermediate pitcher. Chances were high that Berheigen will be included in the rotation, but the team fell into a mystery due to poor performance at the match against Rakuten. In terms of performance at exhibition games, Murphy (eight hits and three runs in eight innings) is much more stable.

Berheigen has a unique background. He made his big league debut in 2014 and played in the Major League for six years before moving to Japan in 2020. After playing for Nippon Ham for two years, he returned to the U.S. ahead of the 2022 season. At that time, NPB's two-year record was 13 wins and 14 losses with 3.51 ERA. Last year, he played for the St. Louis Cardinals in 60 games (all bullpen games) with five wins and one loss with a 14-hold ERA of 3.98. He garnered stable outs by banking on fastballs with an average of around 94 miles (151.3 kilometers/h).

After paying close attention to his stellar performance, the club sent a love call again, and the club finally made a comeback to the NPB in three years. However, due to sluggish exhibition games in succession, the club is agonizing over the situation. Sponichi Annex reported that right-handed pitchers who signed a 350 million yen (31 million U.S. dollars) contract with just three weeks left before the opening of the game are in jeopardy for their entry into the opening rotation.