Asamura exercises FA option; Matsui named farm manager

On a day where things became big, the Saitama Seibu Lions announced their staff changes when Hideto Asamura declared himself a domestic free agent using his option. 

Asamura, 27, has been the Lions captain since 2017 and was viewed initially as a successor to Hiroyuki Nakajima at SS. He established himself as the everyday 2B and had a career-high 32 home runs/

It's possible he's only testing the market and seeing how much he's worth, but we really don't know what he wants as no one does. Media reports he has a good relationship with the team, but told officials he wanted to make himself a free agent.

Track record indicates he's likely gone if he purely wants the money as the Lions often lose bidding wars. Previously, the team lost Takayuki Kishi and Ryoma Nogami in back-to-back years to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles and Yomiuri Giants. The last position player who walked with compensation was Yasuyuki Kataoka, who signed with the Giants after the 2013 season.

It was reported the Lions offered a multi-year deal and we can only hope it's not a hard offer. Presumably, other teams will beat it and make a better one financially. The Lions braced for a possible loss of Asamura when drafting IF Kakeru Yamanobe last month. 

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The 2018 Seibu Lions staff was also announced on Sunday with Kazuo Matsui being named the team's farm manager. Here are some of the notable changes:

-Besides being the third base coach, Toshifumi Baba is now the strategy coach and likely takes head coach responsibilities at the ichi-gun level.

-Kazuyoshi Ono will be taking Yoshihiro Doi's spot as ichi-gun pitching coach, serving alongside Fumiya Nishiguchi. This will be Ono's first time coaching with the Lions since 2011. He previously worked in the front office and was a trainer who traveled with players to Australia during the winter offseason. Ono last coached at the ichi-gun level with the Lions in 2008.

-Satoshi Kuroda has been promoted to the ichi-gun as an infield defense and base running coach.

-Hitting coach Shigenobu Shima will work down in ni-gun after being the team's ichi-gun hitting coach.

-Ni-gun coach Shogo Akada moves up to the ichi-gun as a hitting coach, was previously a ni-gun defense and first base coach.

-Eiji Kiyokawa was a trainer for the team and will be a patrol or roving pitching coach. He returns for the first time in two years.

-Hiroshi Hirao, the hero from the 2008 Japan Series, will serve with Shima as a ni-gun hitting coach. 

Full staff announced here (numbers worn in parentheses):

Ichi-gun:

Manager: Hatsuhiko Tsuji (85)

Strategy/Fielding/Base running: Toshifumi Baba (83)

Pitching: Kazuyoshi Ono (88)

Pitching: Fumiya Nishiguchi (74)

Battery: Kosaku Akimoto (84)

Hitting: Masahiro Abe (76)

Hitting: Shogo Akada (86)

Infield/Base running: Satoshi Kuroda (87)

Outfield/Base running: Tomoaki Sato (70)

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Ni-gun

Manager: Kazuo Matsui (77)

Position Player/Head Coach: Hiroyuki Takagi (75)

Pitching: Kento Sugiyama (90)

Pitching: Ming-Chieh Hsu (91)

Battery: Kosuke Noda (82)

Hitting/Infield/Base running: Hiroshi Hirao (no number mentioned)

Hitting/Outfield/Base running: Shigenobu Shima (80)

Ikusei: Takanori Hoshi (81)

Patrol/Roving pitching coach: Eiji Kiyokawa (92)

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