Giants pitcher Miles Mikolas is returning to MLB after three seasons with the Yomiuri Giants.  Mikolas signed a two year deal with the Cardinals earlier this week.  I thought I'd do a "New Import" post for Mikolas like I did when Tony Barnette returned to North America two years ago.

Mikolas had gone 4-6 with an ERA of 5.32 in 37 MLB games before he joined Yomiuri after the 2014 season.  In his first season with the Giants he went 13-3 with a 1.92 ERA and 107 strikeouts in 145 innings.  He lead the Central League in Winning Percentage that year and his wife Lauren got a lot of attention from the Japanese press while watching her husband in the stands - enough that she ended up on a baseball card in Sports Card Magazine #112.  Shoulder issues limited him to only 14 games in 2016 when he went 4-2 with a 2.45 ERA.  He was fully healthy again this year and had a 14-8 record with a 2.25 ERA and led the league with 187 strikeouts (in 188 innings).

His first Japanese card was in the 2015 BBM 1st Version set (#171).  He had two other BBM flagship cards - #195 in the 2016 1st Version set and #504 in the 2017 2nd Version set.  His other BBM set appearances include the 2016 and 2017 Fusion sets, the 2015, 2016 and 2017 Giants team sets, the 2016 "Historic Collection" set (The Ballpark Stories) and the 2017 Genesis set.  He never had a "regular" Calbee card - his lone base set card was from the 2016 Title Holders subset (#T-13).

2015 BBM 1st Version #171

SCM #338/2015 BBM Giants #G82

2016 BBM The Ballpark Stories #008

2016 Calbee #T-13

2017 BBM Giants #G15

2017 Epoch Giants #13