2009 NPB Average Salary

» 29 April 2009 » In international baseball, npb, sports business »

Note: the 2014 revision of this post is here.

What great timing — just after we published the 2009 NPB Payroll Ranking, the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association announced their 2009 average salary numbers. The 738 players’ (not including foreign non-union players other than Chen Weiyin from the Chunichi Dragons) average salary for the 2009 season amounts to 3793K yen, which is 4.5 percent higher than the previous season.

The Tokyo Yomiuri Giants lost the top spot after holding the highest average salary for 14 consecutive seasons. The Hanshin Tigers earn the crown for the first time since the numbers began being published in 1988. The reason for Tigers reaching the top is that they have the highest Japanese paid player in Tomoaki Kanemoto and the main players on the roster earning at the 2M range. The runner-up is the Softbank Hawks and, suprisingly, in third place is the Yomiuri Giants. The Hiroshima Toyo Carp are in the last spot for the second year in a row. As most foreign players are not included in these numbers, it’s really the average payroll for the Japanese players on each team.

Rank  Team Average Salary PreviousSeason
1 Hanshin Tigers $58,519 $53,297
2 Softbank Hawks $53,257 $55,045
3 Yomiuri Giants $47,227 $55,651
4 Chiba Lotte Marines $43,682 $34,572
5 Chunichi Dragons $43,541 $51,065
6 Seibu Lions $36,118 $30,563
7 Tokyo Yakult Swallows $33,572 $28,088
8 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters $33,380 $29,805
9 Yokohama Baystars $33,078 $32,330
10 Orix Buffaloes $27,553 $25,846
11 Rakuten Golden Eagles $27,108 $23,887
12 Hiroshima Toyo Carps $23,210 $19,675

* Note: these figures have been converted to US Dollars on May 3rd.

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  1. Ryo
    PWHjort
    29/04/2009 at 9:16 am Permalink

    Hey Patrick,
    I just wrote an entry on Kawakami’s recent struggles, you might enjoy it.

    http://capitolavenueclub.com/?p=152

    Take care,

  2. Ryo
    PWHjort
    29/04/2009 at 10:40 pm Permalink

    Kawakami is experiencing shoulder soreness and the Braves will push Kawakami’s spot in the rotation back 3 days to give him extra rest. He’ll be going on Tuesday instead of Saturday on 8 days rest. We’ll see how he responds to the extra rest. Mark Bowman made a comment about it under the username “udflyer96” here: http://markbowman.mlblogs.com/archives/2009/04/the_old_gonzo_is_back.html#comments

  3. Ryo
    Patrick
    02/05/2009 at 9:25 am Permalink

    Nikkan Sports has a piece saying that Kawakami’s shoulder is okay. He played catch with a trainer and said he’s still a little concerned, but feeling okay. It does not appear that a doctor has looked at it, based on this article.

    http://www.nikkansports.com/baseball/mlb/news/f-bb-tp2-20090502-489741.html