The Saitama Seibu Lions enter the offseason with drama in free agency. On Monday morning, reports came out that Ryoma Nogami has filed for free agency.
Nogami, 30, was a starter with the Lions for several years and stayed at the ichi-gun since he was drafted out of the industrial leagues in 2008. A reliever in 2009 and 2010 with an injured season in 2011, Nogami was a starter from 2012-2017.
Last season, he had a career year going 11-10 with a 3.63 ERA and logging 144 innings, his most since 2013. His 11 wins matched his career high from 2013 as well. Nogami made about ¥50 million last season and he is penciled in as a type B free agent, meaning any team who signs him would result in compensation for the Lions.
Here are the options and links we're hearing about in regards to what happens to Nogami next:
Sign with the Hanshin Tigers
The Tigers have been linked to Nogami since the end of the regular season. It's common for the Tigers to always have a connection to any player in the media, but this one seems like serious interest. It's likely they would win a bidding war if it were with the Lions.
With the Tigers' bullpen being good, their rotation had their share of ups and downs after Randy Messenger was injured. Takumi Akiyama had a strong year, Atsushi Nomi won't get any younger despite rebounding well and then there's the wild Shintaro Fujinami, who spent majority of the year in ni-gun.
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Sign with the Yokohama DeNA Baystars
The Baystars rotation was their strength in 2017, but it can be solidified with Nogami on the back end as they've drawn interest. Shota Imanaga, Haruhiro Hamaguchi and Kenta Ishida are all young and up-and-coming pitchers who are expected mainstays. Joe Wieland proved to be a solid signing and Shoichi Ino is the veteran. They just drafted Katsuki Azuma for even more youth.
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Sign with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks
The Hawks were rumored for Nogami as he is a Fukuoka native, but their rotation depth is already deep. Adding Nogami wouldn't hurt them, but this one is all speculation on the media's part. If he were to sign in Fukuoka, the Lions could chose a player compensation option rather than just the money.
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Remain with the Lions
A statement from Nogami's camp said that all options are possible. However, this would be a loyalty thing more than the money. It's likely the team will give a hard offer and not go any higher. If another team beats it and Nogami is in it for the money, he's gone.
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Meanwhile, Ginjiro Sumitani announced he will remain with the Lions for 2018. The report said the options were limited and there was debate on the Lions offering a two year deal or not. It's likely that Sumitani takes a one-year deal and could test the market after next year with Masatoshi Okada and Tomoya Mori in the Lions plans.
Sumitani, 30, has been with the team since 2005 and has played in 12 seasons, entering his 13th year.
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The Lions have been known the let pitchers walk in free agency in the past. There have been many high profile free agency departures going as far back as Kimiyasu Kudo in 1994. Other pitchers to leave in free agency include Kiyoshi Toyoda (2005), Chieh-Ming Hsu (2011), Kazuyuki Hoashi (2011), Hideaki Wakui (2013) and most recently, Takayuki Kishi last year.
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Don't forget Dennis Sarfate... the Lions refused to offer him a multi-year deal, so he left for Fukuoka.
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