Announced on Monday morning, Major League Baseball has planned an international tour in hopes to capture more fans located outside of North America. The league has partnered with Nippon Professional Baseball to make this tour possible, along with approval from the MLB Players’ Association.
The first wave of players announced to be representing their respective teams and Major League Baseball were announced alongside more information about the tour. Players such as Rhys Hoskins, Yadier Molina, Christian Yelich, and more will travel to Japan in November in the league’s first tour of Japan since 2014. One player traveling this November who also traveled in 2014, is Carlos Santana of the Philadelphia Phillies.
The seven-game tour will be managed by Miami Marlins’ manager, Don Mattingly. Major League Baseball plans to give fans with access to the live broadcasts of every game on MLB Network a chance to see the talent of professional players in the Japanese professional league. Talents such as Shohei Ohtani and Kenta Maeda have appeared against the MLB stars during these tours, an MLB tradition dating back to the first tour in 1908.
Arrick Joel has covered the Dodgers since 2017, and for Dodgers-LowDown since 2018. Follow @ArrickJoel and @DodgersLowDown on Twitter for more.