Tsutsugo Yoshitomo is returning to Yokohama Stadium.

The post on Yokohama DeNA’s official club account announcing Tsutsugo’s return has been reposted nearly 30,000 times and liked more than 64,000 times. The comments section is also filled with welcoming and joyful voices such as “Welcome back,” “Thank you so much,” “It’s here!” and “Yokohama wins.”

At one point, it was reported that he was definitely going to join the Yomiuri Giants, but in the end, he returned to his old team. The controversy over Tsutsugo’s return to Japan, which had thrown baseball fans all over Japan into confusion, ended in a way that many fans hoped for and found satisfactory.

However, for Tsutsugo himself, the real battle is just beginning. As one of the reasons behind the reports of him joining the Giants was the possibility of playing time, the current DeNA outfield includes Keita Sano, Taiki Sekine, Takaki Watarai, and Masashi Kuwahara, and the field of regular candidates is saturated.
With Tyler Austin sidelined with a thigh injury, he is likely to play at first base when he rejoins the team, but there will likely be fierce competition for a regular spot once Austin returns.

Tsutsugo will want to put up some good numbers and secure playing time before Austin returns, but after four years in the United States, the key will be how well he can readjust to Japanese baseball.

Tsutsugo, who hit a total of 205 home runs in the 10 years up to 2019, will be able to regain his brilliance in Japanese baseball for the first time in five years?

Here, I would like to look back at the performance of fielders who, like Tsutsugo, have returned to NPB from the majors in the past, and consider what level of performance can be called the “line of success” in Japanese baseball.