Anthony Kay was a first-round pick in the 2016 MLB Draft, when the Mets decided to gamble on his talent. However, the story of this pitcher is a far cry from the fairy tale in which a young boy stands out for his virtues and then triumphs when he is given an opportunity at the highest level.
Kay’s life has indeed taken a completely different path since he signed with the New York franchise nine years ago. In that time, he has been designated for assignment several times, claimed off waivers many times and almost always doomed to work in the Minor Leagues, not to mention that he lost a year of his career to Tommy John surgery.
Faced with so much adversity, anyone would have given up, but the left-handed shooter played one last card and went to Japan to try to straighten out his career, something he finally achieved far from his native Stony Brook, a small town on the outskirts of New York.
In Japan, better than Ohtani
In January 2024, Anthony Kay landed in Japan almost as a complete unknown. The fact that he had passed without pain or glory through several Major League organizations was not the best endorsement after his signing by the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, but the left-hander began to settle into a different circuit and culture to get the best out of his performance.
In his first campaign, he achieved a 3.28 ERA in 26 starts, with 129 strikeouts in 148.1 innings of work, as well as eight wins and nine losses. The improvement was already considerable, but the leap in 2025 was unexpected: 24 starts, a 1.74 ERA in 155 innings, 130 strikeouts and a 0.981 WHIP.
Kay finished second in ERA in the Central League, only behind Hanshin Tigers ace Hiroto Saiki (1.55). The American left-hander had an average fastball velocity of 94.6 mph and set a record for Yokohama’s ERA.
His fundamental weapon was his extraordinary ability to force opponents to keep the ball on the ground. This was reflected in a ground ball rate of 57.8%, the highest in the entire Japanese circuit, where it is no longer so easy to avoid elevated connections due to the explosion of power hitters.
As a detail to take into account, the main star of world baseball at the moment, the Japanese Shohei Ohtani, never achieved in his career in Asia an ERA as low as Kay’s in 2025. In fact, the best ERA of the Japanese phenomenon before leaving for MLB was 1.86 in 2016.
The return home
According to Jon Heyman, columnist for the New York Post, Anthony Kay is ready to return to the majors and try his luck again. In his mind, he wants to erase previous experiences in MLB, where he pitched briefly with the Blue Jays, Cubs and Mets.
The left-hander made 44 appearances over five seasons, posting a terrifying 5.59 ERA with a 5.0 walk rate per nine innings. Opponents’ offensive line against him was .269/.366/.469/.835, with almost 49% of line or fly connections.
Those trends were reversed in Japan, although that is no guarantee of immediate success in the United States. In fact, there are not many stories of Latin or North American pitchers with resounding successes in Asia who have returned to establish themselves in MLB.
However, there are exceptions, such as right-hander Miles Mikolas, who had three good years with Yomiuri (31 wins and a 2.34 ERA in 66 outings) and then managed to establish himself with the Cardinals with a fairly even 68-69 record and a 4.16 ERA in more than 1,000 innings of work.
Will Anthony Kay be able to follow a similar path and even improve on Mikolas? It is an unknown that only fate and the diamond will solve.
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