Time to wrap up our series on foreign recruits, and bam! … two teams – the Cometz de Metz and the Huskies de Rouen – have together revealed the names of three more players set to make their debuts this year in France’s D1 league.
We can’t keep up!
Not that we’re complaining. If the announcements are coming fast and furious, it’s because the baseball season is fast approaching. And yes, expect more surprises in the coming days.
But enough chatter. Before we fall further behind on the news, here are the latest recruitment announcements:
Raimiel Rodriguez
Every team needs a solid shortstop, and the Metz Cometz, who will be playing in D1 for only the third time, are convinced they’ve got one this year: Raimiel Rodríguez.
Hailing from the Dominican Republic, Rodríguez now lives in the U.S., where he’s played – and played well – at both the high school and college levels.
*Rodríguez with the Johnson and Wales University Wildcats
The 25-year-old most recently played for the Wildcats of Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, where he earned conference MVP honors last year after finishing with a .276 batting average, eight home runs, and 30 RBIs in 28 games.
‘Ray’ Rodríguez
In 2018 and 2019, he posted averages of .385 and .344 for the Wildcats. During the COVID-shortened 2020 season, he played just five games. Johnson and Wales University competes at the NCAA D-III level.
Rodríguez has also played for amateur teams in the U.S., including Mass Envelope (2021) in the Boston Park League, and the Syracuse Spartans in the New York Collegiate Baseball League (2018).
“I’m ambitious. My expectations are to qualify for the playoffs and try to surprise everyone by going for a title,” he explained in a recent interview with the Cometz.
“I’ll contribute to a great season in Metz with my bat, my defensive work, my motivation and energy levels, and my knowledge of the game.”
Patrick Jordan
The shortstop isn’t the first new recruit announced by Metz for the 2022 season. As Le Baseblog has noted in previous articles, the Cometz are also bringing in a catcher, a two-way player, and a starting pitcher.
In the end, Rodríguez isn’t the last of the bunch either. No sooner than yesterday, the Cometz made another personnel announcement, this time introducing a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher who had an excellent season last year with a small Massachusetts university called Westfield State.
In 35 innings, Patrick Jordan posted a 2.06 ERA with 37 strikeouts for the Westfield State Owls, who, like the Wildcats of Johnson and Wales University, compete at the NCAA D-III level.
*Jordan still has plenty to prove (Credit: Metz Cometz)
Interestingly, the 24-year-old was initially recruited to play at an even higher level of college competition, in NCAA D-1, with the University of Maine. That opportunity ultimately was cut short by an injury and surgery.
In 2020, the COVID crisis cost Jordan another season. And yet, rather than throwing in the towel, the young Bostonian worked hard to recover, as evidenced by his success at Westfield State.
He’ll now have a new chance to shine, in the French championship, and Metz Cometz president David Ten Eyck is convinced Jordan will deliver.
“Patrick’s profile is atypical in many ways, but after talking with him and studying his career, I was quickly convinced that Patrick was by far the best option for us,” Ten Eyck explained.
Javier Hernández
The defending D1 champion Rouen Huskies also made a big recruitment announcement last weekend, introducing a player who has also spent time in the U.S., but at the professional level.
Catcher Javier Hernández, 25, is from Maracay, Venezuela, and, like many Latin American players recruited each year to play in D1, signed his first pro contract as a teenager, in his case with the Toronto Blue Jays organization.
Hernandez played seven seasons in the minors (Credit: Rouen Huskies)
At just 16 years old at the time, he began playing in the Dominican Summer League. For many of these prospects, one or two seasons in the Dominican Republic is all they get with their respective MLB clubs. But in Hernandez’s case, the Blue Jays then gave him a chance to play in the U.S. and Canada minor leagues, where he spent six seasons, ultimately reaching the A-Advanced level.
His last stint, in 2019, was with the Dunedin Blue Jays in the Florida State League (FSL). In seven seasons with various Blue Jays affiliates, Hernández collected 180 hits and 78 RBIs while batting .219.
“Javier has shown a great desire to join our club,” explains Sylvain Virey, Rouen’s sports director.
“He’s a player who stayed a long time with the Jays due to his playing qualities as well as his human qualities. It’s important for us to take this aspect into account before offering a player a chance to strengthen our roster.”
Kenjiro Sugiura
The Montpellier Barracudas, who finished third in D1 last season, will NOT be signing Shohei Ohtani this year.
Unfortunately, the MLB superstar already has a job and is set to earn $5.5 million U.S. this year – a bit more than even the richest French teams can afford.
But jokes aside, the Barracudas have decided to take a chance this season on a young man who, like Ohtani, hails from Japan and can both pitch AND hit – from both sides of the plate, no less.
Here’s Kenjiro Sugiura, a two-way player from Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture who actually quit baseball in high school, opting instead to try badminton.
Though he had no experience to start with, Sugiura ended up being pretty good at the racket sport, ultimately reaching the prefectural tournament in doubles, according to the Baseblog’s Japan-based special researcher (arigatōgozaimasu, *Zuiryo!).
However, the talented young athlete always had a soft spot for baseball, and while attending Chuo University in Tokyo Prefecture, he played for intramural teams.
His skills were such that he was eventually selected for the national team for the Strong League World Baseball Challenge, which uses a hard rubber baseball instead of the traditional leather.
That, in turn, led Sugiura to think he might still have a shot at playing professional baseball, and in 2019, those hopes became a reality when he was drafted by the Kanagawa Future Dreams in the BC League, an independent Japanese league.
With the Kanagawa Future Dreams, he played two seasons (2020 and 2021), both as a pitcher and, since last year, as an outfielder as well.
The Japanese player is now aiming for a new challenge, French D1, and Le Baseblog, for its part, can’t wait to see what kind of show he’ll put on.
Just a reminder: Opening Day is Sunday, April 10, which happens to be Sugiura’s birthday. He’ll turn 24, the same age as Ohtani was in his first year with the Angels. Coincidence?
Benjamin Witte
