Although Japanese pro baseball hasn’t had a player enter spring training without a contract since 2011, two players, Lotte Marines pitcher Roki Sasaki and Rakuten Eagles outfielder Ryosuke Tatsumi are currently on track to end that run of offseason labor harmony.
Sasaki is embroiled in a saga about when and how he can leave the Marines and begin a career in MLB, something he apparently wants to do long before he turns 25, when such a move would be extremely lucrative for both him and the Lotte organization.
If you’re the Marines, and you were only able to sign Sasaki as an amateur on the condition that you permitted him to go at a time of his choosing, you have to let him go if he persists in his demand.
Unlike the U.S. majors being operated by MLB, Japan’s two major leagues are preparing for their 2022 season.
I haven’t been writing much about camp and preseason games because of the Olympics and some other things on my plate. But then Rob Manfred comes out and says, “The concerns of our fans are at the very top of our consideration list,” when obviously the concerns of the fans fall well below maximizing future ROI and crushing the union.
And one hears that nonsense, one is happily reminded that elsewhere baseball is going on. In Sapporo, the Fighters, whose new manager has said he knows the secret of how to score runs without hits, got six innings without a hit to execute his top secret plans to no avail
