In December the Red Sox signed veteran Japanese reliever Shunsuke Watanabe to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.
But the marriage won’t be a long-lasting one.
As first reported Saturday by Alex Speier of WEEI, Boston has released the 37-year-old Watanabe, who is now a free agent and will presumably attempt to latch on with a different MLB team. He yielded two runs in three Grapefruit League innings with the Sox.
Watanabe was (or is) trying to break into the majors after 13 seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, during which he compiled a 3.65 ERA and 1.235 WHIP in 1,578 1/3 frames for the Chiba Lotte Marines.
His unique spider-like submarine pitching style is a thing to behold ...
