NY Mets free agent retrospective: The Satoru Komiyama experiment

The New York Mets have had a lot of players come over from Japan and join the team. Unfortunately, many have been forgettable. One of the more easily forgotten was the 36-year-old experiment with Satoru Komiyama. Signed on December 3, 2001, he arrived from Japan off a strong season starting 24 games and pitching to a 3.03 ERA.

A perfect debut in relief on April 4 got things started for the best. His second appearance had him pitching 4.1 innings in extra-inning relief versus the Atlanta Braves where he took the loss and began what became a failed stint in Flushing.

Satoru Komiyama became quickly forgotten after his one year with the Mets

Komiyama was called the “Japanese Greg Maddux” which is simply silly in retrospect. Maddux is one of the all-time greats. For starters, Komiyama isn’t in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

The moniker was built more on his ability to throw strikes and work both sides of the plate well. The comparison was mild. Unfortunately for the Mets, he was nothing like the Atlanta Braves legend.

Komiyama did throw strikes well, sometimes to a fault. His 3.6% home run rate was worse than the average in 2022 which sat at 2.7%. Batters put the ball in the air against him. In 2002, this was often a dangerous game to play.

Finishing with a 5.61 ERA in 43.1 innings of relief, Komiyama showed off much better numbers in his time pitching in Triple-A. While there, working as a starter and reliever, Komiyama had a 1.42 ERA with an 8.7 K/9 rate. The strikeouts were especially impressive for the era and in comparison to the 6 K/9 he had in Japan, a pleasant surprise had he been able to do so in the majors.

With foreign players who are as successful as he was, the question often comes down to whether or not they’re capable of being more than a Four-A player. Komiyama clearly was exactly that. Able to do damage versus minor leaguers, he never could against the majors at a high level.

Oddly, he ended up back in Japan pitching again through 2009, posting some ridiculously bad ERAs working mostly as a reliever. He continued to throw strikes, but was completely hittable.

It seems like whatever ailed him with the Mets followed him back to Japan. Although he pitched long, he was nowhere near Maddux.