DUNEDIN, Fla. – The signings of Shun Yamaguchi, formerly of the Yomiuri Giants, and Rafael Dolis, ex of the Hanshin Tigers, along with the addition of Hyun-Jin Ryu, marked the first substantive foray into the Asian market for theRyu, of course, was well-known to the big-league team given his track record with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the two right-handers are by-products of the club’s recent infrastructure investment in the Pacific Rim under regional head Hideaki Sato.
We do have more and more information that allows us to do that better, I think, than we had in the past. I wouldn’t read into the fact that we signed two players that are not from North America this year. That’s just more circumstantial than anything else. It’s opportunistic, which is kind of always the way we work.With Ryu there’s an opportunity, one, to court and attract a different group of fans that have not come frequently or regularly to Blue Jays games. That’s exciting.