Shimizu Traded to Yokohama?
The Chiba Lotte Marines have reportedly agreed to trade Naoyuki Shimizu to the Yokohama BayStars for pitcher Takumi Nasuno and catcher Shinji Ninuma.The trade has not yet been officially announced.
Shimizu is entering the second year of a two-year contract, and has an opt-out clause to pursue an MLB this offseason. He recently suggested that he’s still interested in testing the overseas market, and dismissed any possibility of leaving Lotte to sign with another NPB club. It will obviously remain to be seen how his contract will play out with a trade — does the out clause remain valid after a trade? And if so, will his preference for Lotte lead him to exercise it after being traded?
In any case, this trade looks like a salary dump for Lotte. I’m not high on Shimizu’s MLB credentials (think Kirk Saarloos), but he’s a decent NPB innings eater, and Lotte would not be getting equal value back in Nasuno and Ninuma. Lotte’s baseball club lost 2.8bn yen ($28m) in 2008, and had a stated goal of getting that number down to 1bn yen ($10m). Getting Shimizu’s 280m yen ($2.8m) for 2010 off the books along with Bobby’s salary will go quite a ways in reducing expenses, though the team will likely take a hit at the gates.
03/11/2009 at 5:28 pm Permalink
Great pickup for the Stars if this does indeed happen. Let’s keep the pitching coming guys.
03/11/2009 at 5:31 pm Permalink
I do not recommend making trades with Yokohama. Any player you get brings with him the BayStars stench of losing.
03/11/2009 at 5:43 pm Permalink
I agree. Shimizu isn’t an ace but he’s a more capable innings eater than what ‘Hama has had recently. I think they made the wrong call not trying to draft Kikuchi or Imamura, though.
03/11/2009 at 6:15 pm Permalink
Agreed 100% Patrick. I was very upset that Yokohama decided to draft a fielder first for the 2nd year in a row rather than taking an honest hard look (and simple too quite frankly) at what is wrong with the team. While Tsutsugo is a great pickup in terms of drawing power and as a future “cash cow” so to speak, we simply don’t need him now as our pitching continues to be in shambles and there are many players in our ni-gun system that deserve a shot (Yuki Takamori comes to mind at first thought). But in trying to be less pesimestic about things these days, Yokohama did draft all pitchers besides Tsutsugo and hopefully will use the free agent market and trades to address the pitching problem. This is a good start but obviously more needs to be done.
As for Kikuchi, I couldn’t be happier as a Seibu fan as he will be well taken care of and with Wakui and Kishi in front of him, I see nothing but a bright future in Tokorozawa and hopefully I’ll be able to reap the winning rewards for years to come.
03/11/2009 at 6:33 pm Permalink
I would have liked to have seen ‘hama make a few more selections, and also draft some college and industrial league guys who are maybe a little closer to helping the ichi-gun team. Kind of like Orix’s draft.
08/11/2009 at 7:52 pm Permalink
I am so glad that the BayStars finally got rid of Nasuno and brought in a reliable veteran pitcher, Shimizu. Nasuno was just a bust and waste of money.
08/11/2009 at 11:43 pm Permalink
The deal was just made official.
Shimizu isn’t that great either, but he’s a reliable innings eater and should be a reasonable #3 starter behind Miura and Terahara. Good move for ‘Hama.