On November 9th, Lotte announced that they would allow pitcher Roki Sasaki (23), who had previously expressed his desire to play in the majors, to use the posting system to try out for the majors. Lotte’s general manager, Matsumoto, said, “From the moment he joined the team, he always said that he wanted to go and compete as soon as possible and compete at a young age. We’ve been talking about that for a long time. Ultimately, we made a comprehensive judgment and approved it this year.” Through the team, Roki commented, “I will do my best to work my way up from my minor league contract to become the best player in the world, so that I will have no regrets in my one and only baseball career and so that I can live up to the expectations of everyone who has supported me this time.” Taking on the majors before turning 25. Under the current system, players can transfer and play in major league games, but they can only sign minor league contracts. Signing bonuses are also limited by an “international bonus pool” that differs for each team. If the contract is signed after January 15th next year, the maximum signing bonus will be $7.5 million (approximately 1.14 billion yen), according to American sports network ESPN. In the case of a minor league contract, the transfer fee to be paid to Lotte is set at 25% of the signing bonus, amounting to $1,875,000 (approximately 290 million yen). Roki has two years left until the “25-year-old rule.” Last offseason, when Yoshinobu Yamamoto turned 25, he signed a 12-year contract with the Dodgers worth a total of $325 million (approximately 46.5 billion yen at the exchange rate at the time of the contract). If he plays for 12 years, Orix will pay him approximately 7.2 billion yen. If Roki had waited two more years, he could have signed an unlimited contract and given back to Lotte. The transfer fee for a player with a major league contract is 20% of the total contract amount up to $25 million, 17.5% of the amount between $25 million and $50 million, and 15% of the amount over $50 million.
Japanese baseball players are tied to their teams for far too long compared to the signing bonuses and annual bonuses they receive when they join a team. If they’re tied down for 7 or 9 years, their annual salary is too low. The salary level hasn’t increased in the 20 years since Nakamura Norihiro’s annual salary reached 500 million yen.
Sasaki always seems to have some kind of weirdness about him, and he doesn’t have a track record of staying in the rotation all year… If he continues like this, I’m really worried, and it seems a bit unfair that he’s not really giving back to Lotte, who raised him with care…
Even if he does go to the Dodgers, he probably won’t debut in the spring. Moro has a history of being completely out of shape, so he’ll be trained in the minors to build up his physique and get used to the ball. In the meantime, Otani will be registered as a 2-way pitcher, and I expect he’ll debut in the summer when a pitcher slot opens up. If Otani’s return to pitching is delayed, the Dodgers will have to play the season with 12 pitchers for a while.
It seems that reporters over there have been exposing various things, such as the fact that he has a seven-year contract and that Lotte will earn 40% of the salary every year.
Well, it’s Lotte’s fault for playing it tough against high school students. Anyone who wants to go there should either go directly or become Rintaro. Well, I’m not rooting for the Dodgers either.
In Japanese professional baseball, no matter how many wins you get in a league below 3A, it’s meaningless. Instead, the majors will show you Roki’s potential.
Sasaki has been helping to raise the team’s brand for five years, so it’s already a huge success at this point. They’re competing for the CS every year, and attendance is increasing dramatically.
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