Free Agency Watch: Kawakami, Takahashi, Saito
Today’s free agency updates…
- According to Nikkan Sports, Boston is preparing a 3-year, $21m deal for Kenshin Kawakami. Not an official offer yet, but the numbers sound right. Sponichi has the Braves and Brewers also getting in on Kawakami. Now that CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett are off the market we should see things pick up for the 2nd tier guys like Kawakami.
- In a reversal of previously published reports, Mets GM Omar Minaya was quoted in Hochi Sports as saying he’s basically thinking of Koji Uehara as a starter, and will negotiate with him as such. Hochi also said the Red Sox are interested, which is the first time I’ve seen them explicitly linked to Uehara.
- Ken Takahashi’s representatives have talked to about 90% of the MLB teams, and 10 have shown interest. The Mets are favored at this point, and Takahashi wants to decide on a destination by year’s end if possible.
- Takashi Saito got himself non-tendered from the Dodgers by turning down an incentive-laden 1-year, $2m deal.
13/12/2008 at 1:22 pm Permalink
That Kawakami offer looks like a bargain (even back of the rotation free agent guys make more than twice that), it seems like the Sox now have the Japanese pitchers market cornered for whatever reason.
13/12/2008 at 1:23 pm Permalink
Oh, $7m/year, that makes more sense.
13/12/2008 at 2:17 pm Permalink
Ahh, lemme correct that. My style is to report the total value of the contract.
13/12/2008 at 5:53 pm Permalink
Man, how happy I’d be if, like, the Fighters lured Takashi Saitoh back to Japan to be their closer
SO HAPPY.
Or even the Baystars. Terahara could use a mentor…
Oh well, I can dream.
I really hope Kenshin will go to an NL team — I still have a dream of seeing him hit a home run in person someday. It was the one of my Three Chunichi Goals for this year (the other two being seeing a Masa start and getting my photo with Doala) that I didn’t manage to accomplish. I suppose seeing
DragonbuttMorino hit an outside-the-stadium home run right over my head almost made up for it, but still.Plus this “half of Japan follows Golden Boy to Boston” thing has GOT TO STOP. NOW.
14/12/2008 at 1:06 pm Permalink
Man, how happy I’d be if, like, the Fighters lured Takashi Saitoh back to Japan to be their closer SO HAPPY.
Saito said after his first year in the bigs that he’d be open to returning to Japan, so it could happen. He does have a partially torn elbow ligament, so he’s a health risk at this point.
I’d love to see him go back to Japan and show a whole team of pitchers what he did in America to be so much more effective than he was in Japan.