With Hideto Asamura signing with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in free agency, there is one decision that will need to be made. What happens for the Saitama Seibu Lions compensation from losing him?
There are currently two options for the Lions with compensation: Take the money or take less money and a player coming back.
Asamura made ¥210 million last year, putting him slightly out of the top 3 in payroll and making him a Type B free agent. The Lions could take the money and run, which amounts to ¥126 million, or take an unprotected player and ¥84 million.
Rakuten will submit a list of 28 players who cannot be selected, foreigners not needed on it and are already protected. While we can all speculate, this list will never be public as only the office's of both teams will know exactly who can't be taken. This blog made an estimation on who will be protected and we'll translate it:
*Means all but guaranteed
Pitchers:
Takahiro Norimoto*
Takayuki Kishi*
Yuki Matsui*
Minabu Mima*
Koji Aoyama *
Yuhei Takanashi*
Wataru Karashima*
Hiroyuki Fukuyama*
Takahiro Shiomi
Hiroki Kondo
Yudai Mori
Kohei Morihara
Shoma Fujihira
Tomohiro Anraku
Takahide Ikeda
Yuri Furukawa
Pitchers Available:
Kodai Hayama
Ryota Ishibashi
Yoshinao Kamata
Ryuta Konno
Yuya Kubo
Naoto Nishiguchi
Yusuke Nishimiya
Fumiya Ono
Shu Sugahara
Kenji Tomura
Yuki Watanabe
Reaction: Interesting decisions on a few pitchers, but majority of this is clear cut on who remains protected. I would star Fujihira and Kondo given they were first round draft picks b the team as well. Mostly fringey pitchers who might not look valuable from the outside.
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Catchers:
Motohiro Shima*
Atatsugu Yamashita*
Catchers Available:
Kengo Horiuchi
Tsuyoshi Ishihara
Yuichi Adachi
Reaction: The Lions don't need a catcher given they drafted several in recent years and have faith in Tomoya Mori. Shima is protected out of courtesy, but I'm sure the Lions wouldn't take him anyway if he was available.
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Infielders:
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Eigoro Mogi*
"Ginji" Akaminai*
Yasuhito Uchida*
Toshiaki Imae*
Takumi Miyoshi
Kenji Nishimaki
Infielders Available:
Kazuya Fujita
Itsuki Murabayashi
Tsuyoshi Yamasaki
Naoto Watanabe
Reaction: Would be an interesting call to leave Fujita available given they just signed Asamura. However, Fujita would also be expensive for Lions standards at ¥66 million for 2019. Both inielders available are very young, could be intriguing if they like something.
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Outfielders:
Masaki Iwami
Hiroaki Shimauchi*
Kazuki Tanaka*
Louis Okoye*
Outfielders Available:
Takero Okajima
Hirohito Shimai
Takumaru Yaoita
Akito Tanaka
Reaction: This is a pretty chalk list. However, it is interesting if Okajima fell out of favor with the Eagles to leave him exposed. He was once an all-star for the team in 2016.
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Summary:
The Lions likely want a pitcher who can help them right away. Unfortunately, there are no realistic options that would help the team in 2019 based on this list. However, there are plenty of relatively young pitchers under the age of 24 who could develop into something if the Lions go that route. Konno, Y. Watanabe, Nishiguchi and Ono could easily be worth a cheap flyer if the want.
Murabayashi and Yamasaki haven't been in NPB long enough to get a read on them among the position players. It's possible they could take a long term look at someone given a few guys like Shogo Akiyama and Takeya "Okawari-kun" Nakamura won't be with the team forever.
The only veteran who could help right away is Okajima, but is he a shell of his former self? Two years ago, the Lions took the money and ran when losing Takayuki Kishi which gave them ¥180 million in return. The options back then were extremely thin.
This time, the Lions can go with someone who has upside for the long term, but any selection can feel like a shot in the dark. While I personally don't have a priority on the Eagles roster, a flyer on a young pitcher listed above is what I would prefer given what's available. Taking the money and running is the safe and boring route, but if they're not confident, I wouldn't be surprised.
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We took a poll on Twitter and here are the results:
What do you want from the #RakutenEagles?#seibulions #npbeng
— Graveyard Baseball (@GraveyardBall) December 7, 2018
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