Arihara began his career in NPB, spending six seasons with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. His solid work at Japan's highest level earned him a two-year, $6.2MM deal with the Rangers in December 2020. Arihara pitched in parts of two seasons for Texas from 2021 to 2022. He struggled to a 6.64 ERA across 10 starts with the Rangers in his first season.
His ceiling wasn't stratospheric, but the hope was that he could morph into a solid NHL blueliner. The Leafs gave him as many opportunities as they could. He even logged some top-pairing minutes for a short while. But he just didn't live up to expectations. At times, defensive gaffes turned into goals. Other times, he just wasn't the sort of high-end defenseman the Maple Leafs needed to contend for a Stanley Cup.
On Friday, Arizona Cardinals right tackle Jonah Williams was placed on injured reserve and will miss the rest of the season. Williams will undergo season-ending surgery for a shoulder injury that he suffered in Arizona's Week 10 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, coach Jonathan Gannon said Friday. "He is a starter, good player," Gannon said. "Just he wasn't going to be able to play the rest of the year."
Last September, Kim was wrapping up a season in which he had hit .233/.330/.370, good for a league average wRC+ of 101. He combined that with strong defense at shortstop and 22 steals on the base paths, and it was actually the weakest of his last three seasons in the majors. Since the start of 2022, Kim had hit .250/.336/.385 with 72 steals, a 17.9% strikeout rate, and a walk rate of 11.0% with 13.0 bWAR and 10.5 fWAR accumulated.
