After a successful three-year stint in Japan, pitcher Foster Griffin breaks down his decision to join the Washington Nationals.
With the ongoing MacKenzie Gore question still unanswered, how the starting pitching rotation for the Nationals would unfold in 2026 remained one of the biggest storylines this offseason after Washington produced one of the worst pitching units one season ago. While the Nationals have only made a handful of moves since Paul Toboni and Blake Butera were officially announced as the new president of baseball ops and manager, one of the most notable moves proved to be the organization’s first free agent signing of the offseason.
Former MLB-turned-Japenese pitcher Foster Griffin finalized his one-year, $5.5 million contract with an additional $1 million in incentives to become part of the solution to the Nationals’ rotation.
“The Nationals approached me with a great opportunity - to come back and be that starter,” Griffin told local media on the opportunity to sign with Washington yon Tuesday. “And I’m hoping it all pans out. I’m hoping that the things that I’ve developed and the things that I’ve learned over the last three years in Japan will hopefully translate and I’m looking forward to getting with the pitching coaches here with the Nats and the analytics department and seeing if there’s anything that they’ve seen from my report that they think I need to change a little bit more to get that much better.”
Griffin joins the organization after joining the Yomiuri Giants in 2023 being parlaying his early success into a three-year stint, winning at least six games and an ERA under three every season with a 18-10 overall record and career 2.57 ERA. Griffin was also named to his first NPB Central League All Star game in his final season with Yomiuri.
“It’s tough so far to wrap my head around it, to be honest with you. I never - you hear about some guys going to Japan and coming back, getting deals but to be honest with you, that was never at the front of my mind right when I left,” Griffin said. I kind of just wanted to go out there and re-establish myself as a starter and I kind of felt like I got this second chance at baseball, if you will, in my career by getting the opportunity to go to Japan. At first it was one year and then one year turned into three years. It was an unbelievable experience and I’m really excited to see what I’ve done over there and the changes I’ve made and how I’ve developed as a pitcher, how that will translate back to the big league level.”
Griffin is coming off arguably his best season after allowing only one home run over his final 89 innings across his final three seasons. His revival comes after becoming a first-round pick in 2014 before being shipped to the Toronto Blue Jays, eventually making his MLB debut back on Sept. 22 before being released two months later. With a chance to prove himself in the nation’s capital now stateside, Griffin sees the opportunity ahead of him.
“Most relievers here in the big leagues have that really high velo fastball as well as some wipeout secondary pitch,” Griffin said. “I felt like the arsenal that I had in my back pocket was more of a starting-pitcher arsenal, and I feel like that was my wanting to get back to that. I just felt like I may not have a long-term career as a reliever with the arsenal that I had, and I felt like I had a better shot of a long-term career as a starter.”
“I feel like there's a great opportunity here,” Griffin said. “There’s this young wave of players and a lot of ability, a lot of natural talent that I see on the roster, as well as the front-office changes. I think everything's moving in a great direction.”