NPB Tracker

It’s that time of the year again when each team starts to look forward to the offseason stove league, aside from the Giants and Fighters who are set to do battle for this year’s big prize. The main talks of the off-season will be centering around the movement of the free agents and today the list of qualifying players was released.

Potential candidates that might consider a move overseas are starting to buzz  around the rumor mill and Ryota Igarashi and Naoyuki Shimizu are two of  the bigger names in the news at this point. Toshihisa Nishi is another guy who wants to play in MLB, but he’s 38 and looking at MLB as a swansong. The situation might change once the offseason begins, but there have been no talks about big names being posted and it might be a relatively quiet offseason for new Japanese players coming to the States for a new challenge.

DOMESTIC

• Fighters: Shugo Fujii (LHP), Hichori Morimoto (OF)
• Golden Eagles: Yosuke Takasu (INF), Akihito Fujii (CA)
• Lions: Yoshihito Ishii (INF)
• Marines: Hiroyuki Kobayashi (RHP), Tadahito Iguchi (INF, under a three-year contract)
• Buffaloes: Tsuyoshi Kikuchihara (LHP), Osamu Hamanaka (OF), Alex Cabrera (INF)
• Giants: Shinnosuke Abe (CA)
• Dragons: Hidenori (OF)
• Tigers: Atsushi Fujimoto (INF), Norihiro Akahoshi (OF)
• Carp: Ryuji Yokoyama (RHP), Yoshikazu Kura (CA)
• Baystars: Atsushi Kizuka (RHP)

INTERNATIONAL

• Fighters: Tomochika Tsuboi (OF), Yoshinori Tateyama (RHP)
• Hawks: Hitoshi Tamura (OF, staying put)
• Marines: Tasuku Hashimoto (CA), Naoyuki Shimizu (RHP), Shingo Ono (RHP),
• Buffaloes: Hidetaka Kawagoe (RHP, has been released and will move on)
• Giants: Hisanori Takahashi (LHP), Shigeyuki Furuki (INF), Alex Ramirez (OF), Kiyoshi Toyoda (RHP)
• Dragons: Masahiko Morino (INF, under a multi-year contract), Motonobu Tanishige (CA)
• Swallows: Ryota Igarashi (RHP), Kazuki Fukuchi (OF), Masao Kida (RHP, will move on)
• Baystars: Shigeru Morikasa (OF), Toshihisa Nishi (INF, has been released and is looking to play in the States in ’10)

Note that the player’s status, where known, appears in brackets beside his name. We’ll update this page as the offseason progresses.

Multiple reports out of Japan are confirming that Kenji Johjima’s NPB return will indeed be with the Hanshin Tigers. It took two rounds of negotiations for the Tigers and Johjima to work out a deal.

Sports Hochi Osaka is saying its a four-year deal, with an estimated value of 2.5 bn JPY ($27.25m at today’s exchange rate). No one else has reported that figure so we’ll see if it winds up being accurate. If it’s true, it’s a pretty nice deal for Joh. An official press conference will be scheduled shortly.