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Washington Nationals GM Says Shinnosuke Ogasawara Helps 2025 Rotation

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Washington Nationals GM Says Shinnosuke Ogasawara Helps 2025 Rotation


The Washington Nationals took a walk on the wild side by signing a pitcher that seldom walks many. Shinnosuke Ogasawara, 27, also has a 54-72 career record, doesn’t throw very hard, and had a losing record in seven of nine pro seasons in Japan.

Nevertheless, General Manager Mike Rizzo told reporters that he believes the left-hander is “big league ready.”

Ogasawara got a two-year, $3.5 million contract last week as the first free agent in team history to be signed from Japan. He is expected to compete for a job in the rotation behind MacKenzie Gore, Jake Irvin and Michael Soroka. His chief competition is expected to come from nine-year MLB veteran Trevor Williams and second-year men DJ Herz, Mitchell Parker and Jackson Rutledge.

“This is the deepest starting pitching staff we’ve had in a long time in the upper minor leagues and major leagues,” Rizzo said. “We think we go nine or 10 deep now, which is something that we’ve been trying to get to for years.

“You never have enough starting pitching. That is the driver of success in the big leagues.”

Rizzo said the club had scouted Ogasawara for a few years and likes the soft tosser’s ability to throw strikes. The lefty walked only 1.4 batters per nine innings in 2024, when he had a 3.12 earned run average but only a 5-11 record for the Chunichi Dragons.

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Ogasawara turned pro at age 18. He has relied on a fastball/changeup mix and occasionally throws a curveball that has been timed at under 70 mph. The fastball averages 89 to 91 mph, but he has shown the ability to place it where he wants in the strike zone.

Two decades ago, Jamie Moyer baffled batters with slow stuff. The lefty’s fastball averaged 82 mph when he had a 21-7 record at age 40 for the 2003 Seattle Mariners. He also threw a 77 mph cutter and 73 mph changeup, both with movement. He pitched until age 49.

Ogasawara’s best season was 2022, when he went 10-8 with a 2.72 ERA, 140 strikeouts and only 40 walks. Rizzo believes the 5-foot-11, 180-pound pitcher can do better.

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“Part of the attractiveness to him is that he’s not a finished product,” Rizzo said. “There’s still some development that he could learn from and become a better pitcher than he even is now.”

Japanese Pitchers In MLB

There are 11 players from Japan returning in 2025 to MLB rosters. Nine of them are pitchers, including two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He did not pitch in 2024 as he recovered from Tommy John Surgery.

The others: Yu Darvish and Yuki Matsui, San Diego Padres; Shintaro Fujinami, Seattle Mariners; Shota Imanaga, Chicago Cubs; Yusei Kikuchi, Los Angeles Angels, Kenta Maeda, Detroit Tigers; Kodai Senga, New York Mets; Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers.

The Dodgers recently signed prized prospect Roki Sasaki to a $6.5 million contract and the Baltimore Orioles signed Tomoyuki Sugano in December to a one-year, $13 million deal.

Ichiro The Exception

Last week, former outfielder Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Most of the 70 other Japanese players in MLB history have been pitchers, starting with Masanori Murakami in 1964.

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The right-hander pitched in 54 games for the San Francisco Giants before returning to Japan after the 1965 season at age 22. He had a 5-1 record, 3.43 ERA and 9 saves. Murakami went on to pitch 566 games in Japan until 1982, going 103-82 overall.

It would be 30 years before MLB got another Japanese player. Hideo Nomo joined the Dodgers in 1995 and was the NL Rookie of the Year with a 13-6 record. Overall in America, he worked in 324 games for seven teams through 2008, twice pitching no-hitters.

In 2000, Kazuhiro Sasaki won the AL Rookie of the Year Award at age 32 with the Seattle Mariners after earning 37 saves. He totaled 129 saves over four MLB seasons.

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Now, Roki Sasaki, no relation, is an early favorite to be the NL’s top rookie in 2025.

Tomo Ohka To Washington

The only Japanese pitcher to previously play for the Nationals was Tomo Ohka in 2005. He went to Washington when the Montreal Expos moved there that year.

Ohka pitched parts of four seasons for the Yokohama Bay Stars before the Boston Red Sox purchased his contract. He had a spectacular debut in Boston’s farm system in 1999, going 15-0 with a 2.32 ERA in 24 games.

In 33 games over parts of three seasons for Boston, Ohka was barely okay. He had only a 6-13 record and was dealt to Montreal at the trading deadline in 2001. His best season was 2002: a 13-8 record and 3.18 ERA.

In one year with Washington, he went 4-3, then pitched for Milwaukee, Toronto and Cleveland before finishing his career back in Japan.

The Nationals are hopeful that throwing strikes with a limited arsenal will lead to more success for Shinnosuke Ogasawara.



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Washington Watch: CCAMPIS grant competition announced – Community College Daily

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Washington Watch: CCAMPIS grant competition announced – Community College Daily


The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “on behalf of the Department of Education (ED),” on Monday released a Notice Inviting Grant Applications for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program. Applications are due by May 29.

Last November, ED announced that it had entered into an interagency agreement with HHS to administer the CCAMPIS program. This is the first CCAMPIS competition conducted under this arrangement.

Approximately $73.5 million will go to institutions of higher education that awarded at least $250,000 in Pell grants to enrolled students in FY 2025. HHS will award about 148 grants, ranging from $150,000 to $1 million.

The terms of the grant competition are not significantly different than prior competitions. As before, there are two absolute grant priorities that every application must address – leveraging non-federal resources and utilizing a sliding-fee scale for low-income parents.

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This year’s competition includes only one invitational priority that reflects the Trump administration’s general educational policy. The new priority, entitled “Expanding Education Choice in Early Learning Settings,” encourages applications that “expand access to education choice … including by empowering parents in choosing the early learning setting that best meets their family’s needs.” Flexible childcare programs that include drop-in care and care during nontraditional hours are also encouraged.

One other notable difference from prior competitions is an expanded “Terms and Conditions” section that not only requires compliance with applicable civil rights laws, but also refers to Trump administration Executive Orders and guidance on racial discrimination that clarify “the application of federal antidiscrimination laws to programs or initiatives that may involve discriminatory practices, including those labeled as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) programs.” This includes any “discriminatory equity ideology [as defined in Executive Order 14190] in violation of a federal antidiscrimination law.”

The exact scope of these terms is unclear because courts have not found many of the practices described in these Executive Orders and guidance documents to be violations of federal law.



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A look at the roots (and routes) of immigration to Washington

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A look at the roots (and routes) of immigration to Washington


The Newsfeed

This week, the team brings you stories about how communities including Filipino immigrants, Sephardic Jews and Somalis arrived in the Pacific Northwest

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Each week on The Newsfeed, host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists dive deep into one topic and provide impactful reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.

Group hopes to boost recognition for Seattle’s Filipinotown 



By Venice Buhain

The group Filipinotown Seattle hopes to make sure that the legacy of Filipino Americans in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District isn’t forgotten. 

One of the group’s current projects is pushing for a Filipinotown placemarking sign in the CID. 

“Filipino Americans have had a presence here for over 100 years in Seattle,” said Filipinotown Seattle Executive Director Devin Israel Cabanilla.  

He said that the signage is important to remind people that “the International District is not just Chinatown. Japantown. Filipinotown is here as well.” 

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The group held a poll on what signage might look like and where it might be located. It would be similar to the Chinatown sign on South Jackson Street and Fifth Avenue South, or the Wing Luke Museum  

In the early 20th century, the area now known as the CID was a hub full of businesses, entertainment, social groups and housing that served Seattle’s growing immigrant population from Asia and elsewhere. The communities all intermingled throughout the CID. 

“This area was a central place for Asian Pacific immigrants simply because of segregation,” Cabanilla said. 

Because the Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 to 1946, Filipino immigrants were unaffected by laws in the 1920s that restricted immigration from Japan or China. Many Filipinos came to study at the University of Washington or to work in burgeoning industries, like lumber, farming, canneries and factories.  

While the physical Filipino presence in terms of buildings and storefronts in the CID dwindled in the later 20th century with redevelopment, Seattle Filipinos and Filipino Americans continued to make impacts locally, regionally and nationally.  

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“It may not have been in terms of storefronts, but our presence has always existed in terms of politics, culture as well,” Cabanilla said. 

The Seattle Department of Transportation said it is aware that the group is working on its signage request, but the Department of Neighborhoods has not yet received a formal request. They are also working to develop a clearer process for this and other similar neighborhood signage proposals. 

Filipinotown Seattle said it hopes that the sign helps remind Seattle of the CID’s unique designation as a neighborhood shaped by many immigrants and migrants to Seattle. 

“Is it Chinatown? Is it Japantown? Is it Little Saigon? It’s all those things. And I think re cultivating that this is a multicultural district, Filipinotown is helping establish: Yes, it’s more than one thing,” Cabanilla said. 

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Venice Buhain

Venice Buhain is a multimedia journalist at Cascade PBS. She previously was the Cascade PBS’s associate news editor and education reporter. Venice has also worked for KING 5, The Seattle Globalist and TVW News.



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The Church of Jesus Christ has announced its 384th temple

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The Church of Jesus Christ has announced its 384th temple


The state of Washington is getting a seventh temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Marysville Washington Temple was announced Sunday night during a devotional in the Marysville Washington Stake by Elder Hugo E. Martinez, a General Authority Seventy in the church’s United States West Area Presidency.

“We are pleased to announce the construction of a temple in Marysville, Washington,” the First Presidency said in a statement. “The specific location and timing of the construction will be announced later. This is a reason for all of us to rejoice and express gratitude for such a significant blessing — one that will allow more frequent access to the ordinances, covenants and power that can only be found in the house of the Lord.”

The other temples in Washington are the Columbia River, Moses Lake, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and Vancouver temples.

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The church has 214 temples in operation. Plans for another 170 temples have been announced; many of those temples are in various stages of planning and construction.

Sunday’s temple announcement follows the new practice of the church’s First Presidency, which determines where temples will be built — and when and how they will be announced.

The First Presidency directed a General Authority Seventy to announce the first temple in Maine at a fireside there in December.

In January, church President Dallin H. Oaks said the Maine announcement set the pattern for future temple announcements.

“The best place to announce a temple is in that temple district,” he told the Deseret News.

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The First Presidency will continue to decide where future temples will be built. It then will “assign someone else to make the announcement in the place where the temple will be built,” he said.

This pattern came to him as a strong impression after he assumed leadership of the church in October, following the death of his friend, President Russell M. Nelson.

This came as a strong impression to him shortly after he assumed the leadership of the church, President Oaks said.

The church remains in the midst of an aggressive temple-building era. President Nelson announced 200 new temples from 2018 to 2025. All but one were announced at general conference.

Five dozen temples are now under construction.

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President Oaks now has overseen the announcement of two temples, neither at a general conference.

At the October conference he said that “with the large number of temples now in the very earliest phases of planning and construction, it is appropriate that we slow down the announcement of new temples.”

Ten new temples are scheduled to be dedicated in the next six months.

  • May 3: Davao Philippines Temple.
  • May 3: Lindon Utah Temple.
  • May 31: Bacolod Philippines Temple.
  • June 7: Yorba Linda California Temple.
  • June 7: Willamette Valley Oregon Temple.
  • Aug. 16: Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple.
  • Aug. 16: Cleveland Ohio Temple.
  • Aug. 30: Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple.
  • Oct. 11: Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple.
  • Oct. 18: Managua Nicaragua Temple.

Two-thirds of the 170 temples still to be built are outside the United States.

Temples are distinct from the meetinghouses where Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ each Sunday. Temples are closed on Sundays, but they open during the week as sanctuaries where church members go to find peace, make covenants with God and perform proxy ordinances for deceased relatives.



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