The Padres have added a rare kind of talent to their system, signing 20-year-old right-hander Tatsuya Nogami to a minor league contract that includes a $300,000 signing bonus.
Francys Romero reported the deal was official on Friday, and his transactions log lists the contract as being signed on Oct. 15. Nogami, who is from Japan, had been connected to San Diego in reports last week before the move became official.
What makes this signing stand out is how little conventional pro baseball Nogami has played. He never appeared in Nippon Professional Baseball and instead just completed his junior year with the Osaka Sangyo University semi-hardball team, or junkoshiki, which uses a rubber-covered baseball with a hard core.
The Padres, and president of baseball operations A.J. Preller, are clearly betting on the arm.
Nogami was reportedly throwing 96 mph in Japan, and he’ll need to adjust not only to a new level of competition but also to the different ball he’ll be expected to use in North America. He also brings a splitter and several breaking balls to the mix.
At 6-foot-3, Nogami fits the kind of projectable profile teams like to dream on. He’s also part of a small but growing group of Japanese amateurs taking an unusual route to North American baseball without first going through a pro career in Japan.
MLB.com reported last week that another Japanese pitcher, 18-year-old Shoki Oda, planned to skip the NPB draft and pursue a contract with an MLB team. According to MLB.com’s Michael Clair, that group also includes former Stanford slugger Rintaro Sasaki, who moved to the U.S. to pursue a college career and was then selected in the seventh round of the 2026 MLB Draft.
Clair also wrote that "A's prospect Shotaro Morii opted to sign with an MLB team rather than enter the NPB Draft," while "Genei Sato transferred from Sendai University to Penn State to become eligible for next year's MLB Draft; and two-way University of Georgia player Kenny Ishikawa, who began his collegiate career in Japan, was drafted in the 13th round by the Reds this past summer."
For San Diego, there’s also a familiar Japanese thread here. Baseball operations special assistant Hideo Nomo was the first Japanese player to carve out long-term success in MLB decades ago with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Padres have a history of bringing in Japanese talent, including Akinori Otsuka, Yu Darvish and Yuki Matsui. Nogami is still a long way from the majors, but the bonus gives him time to adjust to a new country, a new language and a new baseball.
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