“It’s not a surprise that he’s one of the better eighth inning guys who can go out there and pitch successfully in difficult, challenging game circumstances and get the job done, bridge you to the closer,” said Pawtucket pitching coach Bob Kipper. “It isn’t an accident that he’s that guy. I think that’s part of his nature.”

The 28-year-old is a two-time veteran of the hard road, once from when he chose it and once from when it chose him. Both times Tazawa pressed ahead, undaunted in one instance by the unwanted attention and in another by the complete lack thereof to position himself as an essential yet oft-underappreciated staple of the Red Sox’ late innings.

He betrays emotion so rarely that it becomes easy to forget the challenging twists Junichi Tazawa navigated to his place as one of the most effective relievers in Red Sox history.


The hard road he chose

Tazawa’s path to prospect status in Japan proceeded atypically. He went undrafted out of high school, and was again passed over by Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league in subsequent drafts. It was only in 2008 that he exploded to prominence as one of the best amateur pitchers in Japan while pitching for Eneos (now a business partner of the Red Sox) in a Japanese industrial league.

Tazawa went 13-1 with a 0.80 ERA, 114 strikeouts, and 15 walks over 113 innings, and was viewed as a candidate to be the top pick in Japan that year.

But instead of following the standard trajectory for a Japanese pitcher – it was virtually unheard of for a top prospect to bypass the NPB draft – Tazawa elected to go in a different direction. He wanted to head to the United States for an opportunity to pitch in Major League Baseball, even if the decision stoked immense controversy in his homeland.


He requested that none of Japan’s NPB teams draft him, and they complied, opening the door for Tazawa to sign a three-year, $3.3 million contract with the Red Sox. But the choice had repercussions.

Tazawa became something of a pariah in the Japanese baseball culture. Even in 2013, when he was coming off an electrifying performance as one of the top relievers in the U.S., Japan left him off its World Baseball Classic roster. And last summer, Japanese baseball legend Sadaharu Oh made it clear Tazawa will not be a WBC consideration in 2017.

“We only consider those players who’ve been a part of Japanese baseball as Japanese players. Tazawa is a special case. This is the road that Tazawa chose. He wasn’t passed over by Japanese pro baseball. It’s kind of too bad for Tazawa. But this is a rule we have within the baseball community,” Oh told The Japan Times.

Tazawa accepts the personal fallout from his decision. However, he expressed discomfort with the fact that the consequences of his signing with the Sox went beyond his own relationship with the NPB. After Tazawa elected to play in the States, the NPB passed a rule that any Japanese player who chose to start his career abroad rather than in Japan would have to sit out two to three seasons at the end of his affiliation in that league before being allowed to return to the NPB.

“I don’t really feel pride [in having taken a risk]. I just feel that I was fortunate that the Red Sox and [Eneos] did everything so I felt comfortable coming over here. I just feel a tiny bit of regret that, because I took that unusual path, there was a rule placed, and that for some players who wanted to come over here, it was a deterrent,” Tazawa said recently through interpreter C.J. Matsumoto. “If I get punished for doing what I want to do, I can take that. But what I did, other players got punished. That’s not really a good feeling.”


Still, it is a decision he does not regret. Tazawa said there would have been more comfort pitching in his native country, but he loves the challenge of the big leagues.

Even so, he had to endure another considerable struggle with career uncertainty.

In eight appearances, Junichi Tazawa (far right) has a 3.15 ERA this season. Getty Images

The road that chose him

At the time Tazawa signed with the Red Sox as a 22-year-old, the righthander had deterioration in his ulnar collateral ligament that suggested that, at some point, Tommy John surgery was in his future.

After a strong first full pro season in 2009, Tazawa came back in the spring of 2010 and struggled in spring training. His stuff was down and there was a reason: It was time for the knife.

He had the procedure in March 2010, committing to the monotony of a hard rehab in an environment that can be isolating, particularly given both the language barrier he faced and some naturally introverted tendencies.

“He’s very quiet. He doesn’t give you much, high or low. Never has,” said Sox assistant GM Mike Hazen. “He’s pretty even-keeled. That’s what we saw during the rehab process – nothing different, really, than what you’ve seen throughout his career. He handled it professionally, took on every challenge, did every bit of the work, just like he does when he pitches.”


When he made it back into games in May 2011, his stuff still hadn’t come back.

Tazawa’s velocity sat in the mid-80s as he gave up 12 runs over 7 1/3 innings in his first two starts back with High A Salem. His velocity ticked up slightly over his time in Salem, but his first start back with Double A Portland on June 25, 2011, underscored how much remained in front of him.

“It was not very good,” recalled Kipper, Tazawa’s pitching coach in Double A in 2011. “I don’t believe he got through the first inning and he gave up six runs. [Red Sox principal owner] John Henry and his wife were watching that game. They ended up leaving in the second inning or something. It wasn’t a very good return to competitive action.

“I’m sure it wasn’t the outing he was hoping for. But I know one thing. He got better. Being a former pitcher myself, outings like that can do some psychological damage. To his credit, he didn’t allow that to happen. He just got better and better and better.”

Hazen, then the Red Sox director of player development, was present at that same game. He wasn’t concerned with Tazawa sitting at that point in the high-80s because the pitcher hadn’t had any physical discomfort.


In Hazen’s experience, the red flag for players recovering from Tommy John is when they feel physical discomfort. The fact that different players have different timetables for rebuilding arm strength is an accepted part of the process.

Still, the Sox thought they might be able to assist Tazawa to get back to form. The team believed that his likely future was in the bullpen, but through that start, his rehab had been in the rotation, in no small part because of a desire to keep him on a steady five-day routine.

But after that start in Portland, even though the team wanted to keep Tazawa working multiple innings and pitching on a regular five-day schedule, they elected to shift him to the bullpen, hoping to encourage him to assume a more aggressive approach.

“Sometimes in that starter role, guys start conditioning themselves mentally to get into the sixth and seventh inning, which is great,” said Hazen. “[But] leaving gas in the tank can sometimes impact a guy’s ability to let it go. But in a bullpen role, where it’s just about going out there and giving it everything you have for three outs, you start to see that velocity climb. I think that’s what we were looking for.

“I think the concept of just letting it go, that comes up with almost every injured player, where there comes a point in time when they have to realize that you’re not going to hurt your arm. You have a brand new ligament. It’s not fixed. It’s not repaired. It’s brand new. You can hurt it again, but you’re going to have to hurt it again doing the same stuff you did the last time. He had to convince himself. He realized it. That’s when we saw the velocity start to go back up.”

Improvement came swiftly, as Tazawa had a 2.42 ERA in his next seven appearances in Portland, his velocity topping out by the end of that time at 93 or 94. He made it that year to Pawtucket, where he posted a 2.51 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 14 1/3 innings, and even made a three-game cameo in the big leagues at the end of 2011.

Where the roads converge

Those steps set the stage for Tazawa’s run of roughly three years and counting as one of the most successful and consistent relievers in Red Sox history. He arrived in the big leagues for good in 2012, when he posted a 1.43 ERA in 43 innings, and through his eight scoreless appearances (nine strikeouts, one walk) this year, he has a 2.50 ERA in that time – 17th-best in the big leagues among relievers with at least 150 innings of work during the stretch.

Boston's bullpen bests Red Sox relievers ranked by ERA+ (ERA vs. league average, adjusted for ballparks). Minimum 150 innings. FIP - fielding independent pitching. ERA+ IP SV ERA FIP Jonathan Papelbon 197 429.1 219 2.33 2.60 Tom Burgmeier 157 411 40 2.72 3.38 Hideki Okajima 149 246.1 6 3.11 3.86 Dick Radatz 147 557.1 102 2.65 2.62 Luis Aponte 143 169.2 7 3.02 3.58 Mace Brown 139 180 16 2.55 3.79 Lee Smith 137 168.2 58 3.04 2.72 Ellis Kinder 135 1142.1 93 3.28 3.68 Paul Quantrill 133 210.1 2 3.47 4.05 Junichi Tazawa 132 211.2 1 3.15 3.08 Sparky Lyle 130 331.1 69 2.85 3.15 Rich Garces 129 307.1 5 3.78 4.21 Derek Lowe 127 1037 85 3.72 3.66 Keith Foulke 127 178.1 47 3.73 4.11 Mike Timlin 125 409 27 3.76 4.00 SOURCE : Baseball-Reference.com Alex Speier/Globe Staff

He’s amidst a run that has been one of the more successful among relievers in Red Sox history. His 132 ERA+ ranks 10th in Red Sox history. He is one of 10 relievers in team history with three or more seasons with an ERA+ of 130 or better; if he repeats the feat this year, he’ll join Jonathan Papelbon, Bob Stanley, and Tom Burgmeier as the only four relievers in team history to accomplish the feat four times.

Consistency in bullpen Red Sox relievers with most seasons of 130 ERA+ (min. 40 innings) Jonathan Papelbon 5 Bob Stanley 5 Tom Burgmeier 4 Junichi Tazawa 3 Hideki Okajima 3 Mike Timlin 3 Rich Garces 3 Sparky Lyle 3 Dick Radatz 3 Ellis Kinder 3 SOURCE : Baseball-Reference.com Alex Speier/Globe Staff

The impact of such a late-innings presence is considerable.

“We talk about it all the time – that seventh/eighth inning is the most crucial part of a lot of games. He sits right in that spot and he has sat right in that spot for the last three years, comes out, and throws strikes,” said Hazen. “He’s a very valuable piece.”

Yet it is a contribution that is easy to overlook, as are the unusual and sometimes difficult circumstances of a pitcher of considerable value but little profile.

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