Thursday’s games
CL
- No games
PL
- No games
Other news
- Rakuten GM Ishii to manage, too
- Orix to promote Nakajima
- Active roster moves
- Announced starting pitchers
Rakuten GM Ishii to replace Miki as manager
Rakuten Eagles General Manager Kazuhisa Ishii will add field manager to his portfolio, replacing first-year skipper Hajime Miki at the Pacific League club the team announced Thursday.
Ishii will be the third Japanese former big leaguer to manage after the Lotte Marines’ Tadahito Iguchi and the Yakult Swallows’ Shingo Takatsu.
Miki has a multiyear contract and will return to manage the farm team, where he was skipper in 2019. Ishii, who played for the Yakult Swallows, Dodgers, New York Mets and Seibu Lions.
The last manager to essentially serve as general manager, although without that title, was Bobby Valentine, who assumed that role in 2005 and held it until 2008, when he was ousted from the GM role in a coup.
Orix to stick with acting manager Nakajima
The Orix Buffaloes announced Thursday they will promote farm team manager Satoshi Nakajima, and change his status from acting manager to manager for 2021.
Nakajima is the fifth acting manager since Orix purchased the franchise from the Hankyu Railroad after the 1988 season, and all four of its Japanese interim skippers have stayed on for the following season. The one American, long-time Japan veteran Leon Lee, is the only one not to be invited back.
