Reds only team never to have Japanese player

As soon as Ichiro Suzuki plays a game for the Marlins — and he reportedly agreed to a one-year deal with Miami on Friday — the Reds will be the only team in Major League Baseball to have never had a Japanese player play for it.

The Reds have had three Koreans play in the regular season for them (Shin-Soo Choo, Bong Jung-keun and Sun-Woo Kim) but nobody from Japan or Taiwan.

In all, 53 Japanese-born players have played in at least one game in the majors, starting with Masanori Murakami in 1964. No other Japanese-born player played in the big leagues until Hideo Nomo in 1995. There are currently nine players born in Japan currently on big league rosters.

The Reds don't have a scout in Japan, Reds general manager Walt Jocketty said in November after he'd expressed interest in free agent outfielder Nori Aoki, who later signed with the Giants.

"We do have some people who do cross checking, we don't have a scout in Japan," Jocketty said. "It's too costly."

The Reds aren't the only team not to have a presence in Japan. The Brewers, Aoki's first team in the majors, don't have a scout in Japan, Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin said in November at the GM Meetings.

"We don't do any (scouting in Asia)," Melvin said. "We just get used. We tell scouts we have interest in this player, and unless we're prepared to go to the top, that's what it's about to them. We're better to focus on what we have, what's attainable for us.

"If you can't shop in the high-end stores, there's no sense going and looking at the shelves."