It's obviously a totally different level, but it's the same situation when people laughed about paying nearly a billion for Shohei. Obviously, that's a lot... but his presence in Japan alone paid for his contract within like a year. Breaking into these international markets is strategic brilliance.
Either way, he's said openly he doesn't want to join the Dodgers. He wants to beat them to win a WS. He's a dog
I think he'd of signed by now if his market was really hot. Maybe his camp is waiting till the final day to see if anybody over pays.
Agreed. He feels like a Giant, Yankee or Oriole to me.
Assuming he's good, that's true. If he's Kenshin Kawakami, he won't be generating any revenue.
The Yanks haven't even spoke with him from rumors. Cubs and Giants are probably the favorites.
Forgot about the Cubs tbh. Yeah, they're obviously in that list.
Well Kawakami was not really that big of a deal in Japan… he was always considered a meh international prospect
And at 5'11 160 lbs he's way undersized.
Ooooof didn’t realize that. Really don’t know much about him
Yeah he's not very big. Tim Lincecum wasn't big and was dominate for a few years then just fell off a cliff at age 28. I'm not giving 150 million to that even with the Japanese market behind him.
Then use Hideki Irabu. The point doesn't change. If he sucks, you aren't making any revenue on him.
He's listed at 176 now. Him and Yamamoto are probably the same size.
you can literally say that about any player signed. The fact is, the Japan market is a hot bed of money and most likely any contract signed will recoup that money within a few years of him signing. They love their stars and will buy a crap ton of merc that the team would get a chunk of. Of course there is risk.. but every player has risk.. nature of the beast.
You're missing the point.
