The Seattle Mariners signed Yusei Kikuchi on January 3 to a complicated contract. At minimum, it is a three-year, $43 million deal guaranteed with two special clauses.
When the three years are up, Seattle has the right to extend his contract by four years for $66 million through the 2025 season. If this team option is declined, Kikuchi can make himself a free agent or take a one-year, $13 million player option for 2022.
On paper, this gives flexibility on both ends and lets the process play itself out. The losers in all of this are the Saitama Seibu Lions, who posted him on the market last December. As Jim Allen pointed out, the Mariners will save some money if the four-year team option kicks in by waiting, rather than a signing a straight up 7-year deal. From percentages going down, there's no interest involved and in the short term, the Lions will make less than $10 million from the $43 million guaranteed up front.
There were several takeaways from Yusei Kikuchi's press conference which can be seen below.
Mariners General Manager Jerry Dipoto revealed that Kikuchi will be eased into the rotation for his first year to get acclimated on a traditional 5-day rotation. It's clear this was the top selling point as to why Kikuchi and his agent Scott Boras picked the Mariners over other teams.
As NPB fans know, Japan will have starting pitchers go once a week as opposed to every four or five days. This also means pitch count is significantly higher for a starter with less concern because of the longer break time in NPB.
While Kikuchi will have his starts every five to six days, the Mariners will ease him in for 2019 and it's likely he could function as an opener or be on a pitch count for a select number of games. Dipoto said they wouldn't be conservative in this approach, but it's likely they could set it up for once a month where he partakes in a bullpening game.
The Mariners can afford to do this because they are openly rebuilding with the recent trading of Robinson Cano and James Paxton. Seattle currently has the longest playoff drought in all four major North American Sports Leagues (NHL, MLB, NFL, NBA) as well as NPB combined with their last postseason year being in 2001, the first season of Ichiro Suzuki.
With the recent core showing they couldn't get it done and Felix Hernandez showing signs that he is past his prime, Dipoto made the right call to build for the future and got a decent package in return for Paxton while also dumping an albatross contract with Cano.
Other major league teams reportedly offered Kikuchi seven-year deals, but wanted him to help their rotation right away for every five days. It's likely the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies all had higher financial offers on the table, but Kikuchi and Boras went with long term career over economic gains.
In Seattle, the pressure won't be as extreme as New York or Philadelphia despite the starving fan base waiting for a postseason. Yes, there will be talks about comparisons to his fellow countrymen from Ichiro to Hisashi Iwakuma to Kazuhiro Sasaki and more, but Kikuchi is embracing it. It doesn't hurt that city of Seattle sells itself given its connections to Japan. He'll be right at home.
Kikuchi speaking in English and practicing since high school can also lead to a good impression with his stateside teammates and staff. Sure, it's easy to be in your comfort zone behind an interpreter as any foreigner going to Asia does, but he clearly tried to limit his use of Japanese in his opening presser. Even Boras himself said he never met a player making this kind of effort.
The only drawback and possible catch to Kikuchi is health. He's had plenty of injury prone history from shoulder pain to elbow stiffness. Prior to the 2015 season, he was already viewed by some as a bust for not staying healthy, not showing signs of an ace and beginning the year in ni-gun despite all the hype he received out of high school.
It wasn't until 2017 where Kikuchi put a full season together while being healthy and nearly won the Sawamura Award, which is viewed as one of Japan's top pitching honors. Most recently, he missed one month in 2018 where he played through a shoulder injury.
It's also easy for the talks about Shohei Ohtani being that he's in the same division as the Mariners with the Los Angeles Angels. The Japanese crowd will get it just as much because of their high school connection to Hanamaki Higashi, where Kikuchi was the predecessor to Ohtani.
"Lefty monster"vs."Two-way star". Look back Yusei Kikuchi vs. Shohei Ohtani in NPB. #mlb #YuseiKikuchi #ShoheiOhtani #npb @Mariners @Angels @MLB @MLBJapan pic.twitter.com/oMLmi9rUIm— パ・リーグ.com / パーソル パ・リーグTV公式 (@PacificleagueTV) January 2, 2019
They saw each other quite a bit in the Pacific League and most notably, Ohtani outdueled Kikuchi on the final day of the 2016 regular season, where the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters won the pennant thanks to a 1-0 victory over the Lions.
The tradition of Japanese players in Seattle continues, while Kikuchi will given the best opportunity to adapt to the Major League game. There is nowhere near the same fanfare that Ohtani received nor does he have the same upside or talent, but as a late bloomer who was once viewed as an injury-prone bust, Kikuchi can finally shine and accomplish his dream of MLB and doing it on his terms.
Best of luck, Yusei.
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