Shaped by Japanese influence, Brazilian Eric Pardinho thriving with Blue Jays

TORONTO — Rather than being an MLB star, Eric Pardinho’s childhood dream was to play in Japan.

The 17-year-old Brazilian pitcher didn’t have Major-League aspirations until he was 14, just two years before signing his $1.4 million deal with the Blue Jays in 2017.

Coming from an Asian lineage – and a small town in Brazil with a large Japanese population – Pardinho was introduced to the Nippon version of baseball when he was six.

He only started acknowledging The Show when the scouts showed up.

“When I was 14, I played in a few Pan-American games,” Pardinho says. “I noticed that a lot of scouts liked me and everyone said that my best option would be to come to the United States, that I’d do way better here.”

Everything about Pardinho attests to his Japanese training. From pitching mechanics to demeanour and mindset, the Asian influence in his game is tangible, and it’s remained that way even as he enters the American system.

“I would always watch videos of what [baseball] was like in Japan,” he says. “The way they play motivated me a lot.”

The interest in the NPB and his initial tepidness towards the American style haven’t seemed to affect Pardinho as he entered Toronto’s farm system this year. In six starts with the Bluefield Blue Jays in the Appalachian League, he’s sitting on a 2-2 record, with a 2.49 ERA and an average of 13.1 strikeouts per nine innings.

His fastball command, which was a pivotal part of the Jays’ interest in him, has carried on through these five starts. His changeup and slider also seem to be working well as secondary pitches, as he’s only issued six walks in 25 1/3 innings.

The 17-year-old admits he didn’t expect such a smooth transition in his first season out of Brazil.

“The level of play is very different here,” he says. “But I only got nervous in the first game.”

A sound mindset – unusual for a player his age – is one of Pardinho’s trademarks, and can also be traced back to his Japanese roots. Ever since he started playing baseball, part of his training has involved Asian discipline and meditation techniques.

“My mom’s family comes from Japan, so I’m familiar with this kind of discipline,” says Pardinho.

His family even lived in Japan for a year when he was three, after his parents (pictured above) decided to take a job overseas.

A pitcher in the “land of soccer”

Pardinho watched his first live MLB game just days before signing his deal with the Blue Jays.

As Brazil doesn’t bear a great number of baseball fans, broadcasted games are limited. Even when they were on, however, Pardinho wasn’t in the habit of sitting in front of the TV for it.

“I used to watch once in a while,” Pardinho says. “But I wasn’t really into seeing it, I liked to play.”

He can’t remember who else was playing last July, either, when he flew to Canada after signing with the Blue Jays as an international free agent.

“I know it was a Toronto game,” he jokes.

When it comes to baseball, Pardinho’s only concern is to optimize his own performance. Beyond his lack of interest in watching games for leisure, he’s never spent time observing other pitchers or trying to emulate established role models. In fact, he claims he doesn’t look up to any baseball player in particular.

“Growing up, I didn’t have an idol,” says Pardinho. “But I used to watch foreign players and try to mirror them, because if they could do it so could I.”

It may seem unfathomable that a Nippon-oriented, professional-calibre pitcher could disregard names like Kenta Maeda, Masahiro Tanaka and Yu Darvish, but it’s important to remember where Pardinho comes from.

When the Blue Jays and Pardinho reached their agreement last year, one of Brazil’s biggest news outlets broke the news by saying Toronto had just acquired the “Neymar of Baseball.”

“I took it as a compliment,” Pardinho says. “It shows that people have high expectations for me, it’s a way of making me work harder and prove them right.”

At 17, his efforts are still years away from paying off in the big leagues. But judging by his early numbers, Pardinho could be on track follow the footsteps of Yan Gomes, Paulo Orlando and Andre Rienzo as the new face of Brazil in Major League Baseball.

Julia Kreuz is a sports journalist in Toronto, Canada. She is originally from Curitiba, Brazil. You can follow Julia on Twitter at @juliackreuz or contact her via e-mail at juliackreuz@gmail.com.



This interview was conducted in Portuguese by Julia Kreuz and translated for this story. The header photo of Pardinho with his parents, Evandro Pereira Pardinho and Rosa Reiko Taniguchi, is used with permission from the family.