Diamondbacks Sign Scott McGough to Two Year Deal

Success in Japan creates opportunity in MLB

As first reported by Nick Piecoro of AZ Central, the Diamondbacks have signed right handed reliever Scott McGough to a two year major league contract. The team has since confirmed the signing. In a corresponding move, left hander Tyler Gilbert has been designated for assignment. 

McGough, who will be entering his age 33 season, has been pitching for the Yakult Swallows of Japan Central League for the past four seasons with a good deal of success. Over his final two seasons with Yakult he had a 2.44 ERA in 118 innings, with 69 saves in the closer role. He was instrumental in getting Yakult to the Japan world series last season. 

That ended on a bit of a sour note however. He made a throwing error against the Orix Buffaloes in game 5, allowing the tying run to score in the 9th inning. Then in game six he committed another throwing error, allowing the Buffaloes to widen their lead. Yakult went on to lose game 7 and the series. 

Still, his tenure in Japan cannot be considered anything but a turnaround success for the journeyman. The Oregon Duck was taken by the Dodgers in the 5th round of the 2011 draft. He was part of the return the Marlins got for Hanley Ramirez in 2012. He missed all of 2014 following Tommy John  Surgery. He finally made it to the majors in 2015 for a cup of coffee, getting into six games and giving up 12 hits and  7 runs. 

He bounced to Baltimore and then Colorado, and even spent some time in the Mexican Winter League in 2018-19. Getting an opportunity to go to Japan in 2019, he made the most of it, pitching very solidly the first two years before getting promoted to closer for the 2021-22 seasons. 

When McGough was last seen in MLB he was throwing a four pitch mix, including a 94MPH fastball, a slider, curve and changeup. According to Piecoro's report McGough is now throwing in the mid 90's and now features a splitter.  Perhaps just getting the opportunity to continue working and throwing to good hitters allowed him to refine his mechanics and come up with new ways to get hitters out. In an interview McGough gave to NBC Sports while pitching for Team USA in the 2021 Olympics, he said:

"The older you get, the more you figure out things with your body – how to pitch, what to throw a guy," said McGough. "You read stuff a little bit better."

The hope then is that the stuff plays in the majors and the maturity and experience translate as well. The D-backs of course had great success repatriating Merrill Kelly back to the USA from Korea, and also did well with the Yoshihisa Hirano signing in 2018. They also like guys with grit and determination to continue to find a way to further their careers. Joe Mantiply is another such example.