Rule 107: When Japanese teams deny news about players joining or leaving their team, they are actually saying, “It’s not convenient for us to talk about it now.”
The Marines’ mysterious Jackson hole
Tuesday, the Lotte Marines denied the report that pitcher Jay Jackson’s deal with the team was done for 2020.
Jackson: “It’s official. We reached terms and I believe it is already signed.”
Director of Baseball Operations Naoki Matsumoto: “We haven’t finalized it, but we’re certainly moving in a good direction.”
Wednesday morning, the Marines announced it had been decided that Jackson was joining the team on the club’s website.
Within an hour or two Kyodo News reported it was not only agreed to but was a done deal. That story in Japanese is HERE. According to Kyodo and various other reports, Johnson’s one-year contract is for 120 million yen (roughly $1.1 million).
I’m not picking on the Marines exclusively or even NPB since it is common also for J-League and Top League teams to delay announcing player moves until long after the news has been officially announced abroad. As I wrote yesterday, the Marines PR staff had other things on their plate yesterday with the official signing announcement of free agent pitcher Manabu Mima.
So when a Japanese sports team calls news “speculation” or a “rumor,” one can interpret that as meaning “It’s sheer speculation on your part to assume we would tell you the truth.”
March 15 in Japan may be tax day, but Dec. 2 was this year’s NPB axe day.
Few surprises on cut day
NPB teams published their offseason reserve lists on Monday when the only real surprise was that Yurisbel Gracial and Alfredo Despaigne were both released by the SoftBank Hawks, ostensibly because the team had yet to conclude its negotiations with the Cuban government’s sports authorities.
The bigger they are the softer they fall
The big local news was that Xavier Batista, who is under suspension for banned substances, was reserved by the Hiroshima Carp. This wasn’t really news since the Carp could have voided his contract for cause during the summer, and most certainly would have if he didn’t have value.
The severity of punishment in Japanese sports tends to decrease as the player’s value increases. Kento Momota, the world No. 2 men’s singles badminton player missed a year and the Rio Olympics after participating in illegal gambling. Kyosuke Takagi one of four Yomiuri Giants pitchers who admitted to betting on baseball, and the only one of the four who had any value, was fired and then re-hired a year after receiving a fairly lenient suspension. So Batista’s remaining with the Carp shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.
Big Jay to join Marines
Jay Jackson said Tuesday he has completed his agreement to play for the Lotte Marines, while Lotte said their talks were moving in a good direction. I’m going to attribute that disparity to Japanese teams’ history of trying to control the timing of news about their team, and having other business to attend to — the introduction of free agent pitcher Manabu Mima.
Jackson, who has a child with his Japanese partner, had hoped to stay in NPB last season and was disappointed in the lack of offers. When nothing materialized he signed a minor league deal with the Brewers and pitched in 28 games with them and spoke about that situation in March and about his adjustments to Japanese ball.
In the U.S. he struck out about 1.5 batters per inning this year — a vast improvement over his norm before he came to Japan in 2016, suggesting he learned how to get more strikeouts in Japan. It will be interesting to see how his re-acquaintance with American-style ball will affect his play here the second time around.
Yamaguchi, Kikuchi posting applications complete
The Hiroshima Carp have completed the posting application for second base glove wizard Ryosuke Kikuchi, while the Yomiuri Giants said they also completed the necessary paperwork on pitcher Shun Yamaguchi, meaning their 30-day posting period will commence on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 8 a.m. Eastern time.
Here’s my page for analysis and backstory on all the guys heading to the majors this winter and in winters to come.
Giants sign Brazilian flame thrower Vieiera
The Yomiuri Giants announced Tuesday they have signed 26-year-old Brazilian and White Sox farm hand Thyago Vieira, who has saved 14 Triple-A games over the past two seasons and pitched in 23 major league games.
