On Monday the Cincinnati Reds officially announced that they had signed centre fielder Shogo Akiyama to a three-year, $21 million deal. This wouldn’t mean much to Blue Jays fans if not for the fact that Akiyama has a couple of interesting — if tenuous — connections to the club.



One of those is that in Okinawa back in late October, during a tune-up for the WSBC Premier12 tournament, Akiyama suffered a broken toe on a third-inning pitch from Team Canada’s Philippe Aumont. Of course, Aumont has since signed a minor league deal with the Jays. The opposing starter that day was Shun Yamaguchi, who recently signed a two-year, $6.35 million contract to pitch in Toronto.



The other connection, more relevant to the Jays’ off-season and the state of the team in general, is the fact that they also reportedly had shown some interest in him before he signed with Cincinnati.



As I noted in last week’s Bird’s Eye View, MLB...