The Saitama Seibu Lions agreed to a partnership with the New York Mets through 2021 on Saturday. With both teams working together in an alliance, they plan on sharing information and strategies together.
"I am very happy to be able to enter into a partnership agreement with the Seibu Lions," said New York Mets Assistant GM Allard Baird. "With this agreement, we will broaden our horizons and also be able to learn various things from each other inside and outside the game. We cant integrate each other's knowledge and culture. We believe that both the Mets and Lions will help in aiming for a champion team."
The Lions partnership with the Mets will include the following details:
-Sharing knowledge of scouting and data analysis methods. These will be used for drafting and acquiring players when evaluating them.
-Staffing will work at each other's Spring Training camps and see how players develop and are coached. From technology use, training methods and even medical aspects, both teams will see how each other operates and learn from it.
-Business and Marketing: Both sides will share information on the business aspect of baseball. They'll learn about how promotions work in both countries and hope to increase the popularity of the sport.
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The New York Mets are a team familiar to a few former Lions players as Daisuke Matsuzaka (2013-2014) and Kazuo Matsui (2004-2006) spent time with the team. Matsui currently serves as the Lions farm manager.
"I am very happy.[on partnering with the New York Mets]," Lions team president Hajime Igo said. "I can share my joy every fall fans every year. I am convinced that it will be a [boom]. It is also a very good to help strengthen the business side [of baseball]. Furthermore, by sharing information on sports promotion through baseball, we hope that it will lead to the solution of the big problem that the baseball player population is decreasing."
In recent years, it has been common to see an influence of NPB in the Major Leagues and vice versa. Whether it's players trading spaces, to rules and strategies, both sides have been important to the game.
Other MLB and NPB teams are also in a partnership similar to how the Lions are with the Mets. The Arizona Diamondbacks and Yokohama Baystars share information as well as the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Texas Rangers.
"[This partnership] will lead to the growth of future coaches and staff," Seibu Lions General Manager Hisanobu "Nabe-Q" Watanabe said. "We will create a strong team that can compete for the championship every year."
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