Lions announce 16 players will not be retained in 2024

 

As the Saitama Seibu Lions 2023 season ended this week, a dose of reality strikes several players.

The Lions announced a combined 16 players who are senryokugai (戦力外) as designated to not receive a contract offer for next season. 

The following names come from the main 70-man roster:

P Katsuhiko Kumon, P Hiroki Inoue, P Takeru Sasaki, P Ryosuke Moriwaki, P Yaku Cho, C Masato Saito and OF Seigo Nakayama. 

Kumon came in along with Shota Hiranuma in a trade with the  Fighters involving the now-retired Fumikazu Kimura and Ryusei Sato. 

Inoue, Sasaki, Nakayama and Moriwaki were all draft picks. Cho was the free agent compensation selection for the loss of Tomoya Mori while Saito was originally an ikusei draft pick. 

The following nine players as senryokugai were on Ikusei contracts:

P Hiromasa Saito, P Kaito Awatsu, P Sho Ito, P Towa Uema, P Toshihiro Idei, C Shoya Makino, OF Joseph Ken Miyamoto.  

Only Idei and Miyamoto never earned a promotion nor played an ichi-gun game.  Uema and Makino were initially retained as players recovering from injury. 

Saito, Awatsu and Ito were all draft picks demoted into an ikusei role. 

It was also reported in media that OF Romero Cuadrado and P Jasier Herrera would not be retained and were listed separately in the team release.  Both players were ikusei signings by the Lions. 

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