Japan’s Next Great Export
Alright so the World Series is about to begin and the baseball world is anticipating an exciting end to the season. However, for those who don’t care and especially for those of you who have an interest in Japan, things are just about to heat up. Right now the buzz off the diamond is centered around free agency for next year. There’s a few big name pitchers that teams are looking to sign, but there’s clearly one man who will draw the most attention.
His name is Yu Darvish and if you watched a little tournament called in 2009 called the World Baseball Classic you’ve seen what he can do. If you’re unaware about him here’s the short story. He was born in Osaka to an Iranian father and Japanese mother. He became a dominant pitcher at the high school level and has continued to do so at the pro level in Japan. He’s been playing in what’s regarded as the second best baseball league in the world, NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball). Yu was drafted out of high school by the Hokkaido Nippon Ham FIGHTERS and has played with the team for seven seasons. In that time, he has become one of the most talented pitchers in the league. In terms of his personal life Darvish married the Japanese actress Saeko in 2007, the tabloids called it a shotgun wedding as the idol was pregnant with their first child at the time.
So, the twenty-five year old right-hander has been “teasing” major league scouts since his teens, but now it seems to be the time he finally arrives in North America. The news came out in August that Darvish had hired Don Namura, a baseball agent who has previously helped players move from Japan to the major leagues. A source said to be close to Darvish claimed that he was finding it hard to stay motivated by baseball in Japan. Honestly who could blame him? Take a look at his stats.
You can see that this year he set career highs in strikeouts, shut outs, and ERA. His numbers far are better than those of Daisuke Matsuzaka. Which is very comforting to MLB scouts and fans alike. Matsuzaka who plays for the Boston Red Sox is headed into the final year of his contract. And the 100+ million dollars spent on him is now considered to be huge waste due to his inability to stay healthy over the past few seasons. That being said, the consensus is that Darvish is indeed a better player, but how he’ll hold up to a MLB schedule is still unknown.
Over the past few months many MLB scouts have made the trip to Hokkaido to check out Darvish in person, and it seems as if this will be his last year in Japan. However, nothing is set just yet. Technically, players (Darvish included) in NPB aren’t free agents until after their ninth season. The process in which MLB teams can sign Japanese players who have played less than the nine years is the “posting system”. This agreement was signed in 1998 between the two leagues. It allows the Japanese teams to get compensated for they players they lose.
Here’s how it works roughly. A player, Yu Darvish in this instance, tells his team to “post” him. The team management can agree or they can refuse. If they agree to “post” they player, the process works like a silent auction. The MLB commissioner will notify teams of a player being posted, they then have four days to submit a sealed bid to him. After which, the commissioner tells the Japanese team what the highest bid is, not revealing the team. The NPB team then has four days to accept or reject the bid. If accepted, the winning team has thirty days to sign the player to a new contract. If they can’t, then the player stays with their team in Japan for at least one more year and the bid money is not lost.
Why is this important? Well it is and it isnt. The Fighters management have said that if Darvish asks to be posted following this season, they will comply. Interestingly enough though, Darvish spoke out on twitter saying that the news reports from the previous day (Oct 18th) of him saying he wants to be posted are false. So, what does this mean? I think that Yu doesn’t want to take away from the game. His team is in the playoffs, and as a natural competitor he probably wants to stay focused. I get the impression he will make the jump to the majors for the 2012 season. He’s said before that he wants to stay and pitch at home and be hero for the youth of Japan. That was all good well three years ago. Now there’s nothing for him to prove in NPB, and as history has shown Japanese players hit a new level of stardom once they make it to the majors.
The teams expected to bid high on Darvish are: The New York Yankees, The Texas Rangers and The Toronto Blue Jays. The bid to negotiate with him could be upwards of 50 million dollars and his annual salary could be in the 8-10 million range. From what I’ve seen it’s going to be money well spent. Yu Darvish will put butts in seats, and he will bring a new level of excitement back to the game of baseball.
If you guys have any questions about something I missed out on or want to know more about Japanese baseball let me know in the comments below.