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“I won’t go back to Japan.”

That’s the quote Nikkan Sports lead with in their story on Nelson Payano’s contract situation with Chunichi.

The article suggests that the two sides have been negotiating, but are still a few dollars apart. Chunichi has reportedly offered $200k, a $50k raise from 2009, while Payano is looking for $250k. It doesn’t seem like an insurmountable gap, but Payano seems like he’s already made up his mind to go back to MLB affiliated ball. “I haven’t signed yet, but I feel that I want to play in America next year,” said Payano, later adding “I appreciate being able to play for a year with the Dragons, and the championship battle with the Giants is a good memory.”

According to the article, Payano already has interest from Korea and multiple MLB teams, including the Rockies.

I didn’t see Payano pitch this season, but my data indicates that he’s a primarily a fastball/slider pitcher.

Losing Payano would put Chunichi down a lefty reliever, a situation compounded by the Dragons’ failure to sign sixth-round draft pick Takahiro Suwabe. Look for Chunichi to rely on Domingo Martinez’s ability to locate Dominican talent once again to fill this role.

The MLB offseason is heating up, and figures to kick into full gear when the Winter Meetings open on Monday. As usual, there will be a number of story lines involving Japanese teams and players this year.

• Hideki Matsui is the top Japanese name this offseason. His situation will evolve as talks with the Yankees occur and other key veteran sluggers find 2010 employers. Reports last week stated that agent Arn Tellem could call Matsui in anytime during the week, and Matsui has delayed his return to Japan to accommodate. Expect a full contingent of Japanese media keep the rumor mill jam-packed until this guy signs.
• We could wind up with a better sense on the market for Ryota Igarashi and Hisanori Takahashi. The market will be stronger for Igarashi, and the righty is already training in Arizona.
• NPB foreign player rosters are filling up, but we frequently hear about a guy or two moving from MLB or affiliated ball over to Japan during the Winter Meetings.

Our own Ryo Shinkawa will be on the ground at this year’s Winter Meetings.

The Chiba Lotte Marines like what they see in Eric Stults. A source with the team quoted in Sponichi said, “he’s got good breaking pitches and can be a shutdown pitcher in Japan. By all means we want him.” Stults is currently on the Dodgers; 40-man roster, so Sponichi speculations that acquiring could take $900k-$1m, but that should be affordable with Bobby Valentine, Naoyuki Shimizu and Tasuku Hashimoto coming off the books.

Meanwhile, the additions of Bryan Corey and Bill Murphy are reportedly looking done deal-ish. The Marines are also looking at Yankees fireballer Romulo Sanchez, though the are prioritizing Stults.

No update on the old story about Lotte bringing in Greg Maddux as a spring training instructor next season.

Update: It’s now official that Germano won’t return to SoftBank in 2010. A team official said he wants to play in America next season.

The last thing we heard about Jose Contreras was that the SoftBank Hawks had decided to prioritize keeping their own free agents, but could turn to the veteran Cuban if negotiations stalled or (later on) an injury occured.

It looks like it didn’t take long for the former shoe to drop, at least part of the way.

SoftBank’s negotiations with Justin Germano have indeed stalled, and it now appears that he won’t be back in Fukuoka for 2010. This, of course, fuels speculation that SoftBank could immediately turn to Contreras to back fill for him. In any event, the presence of Contreras certainly gives SoftBank some additional leverage.

Contreras’s son Kevin, who is hoping to take part in an exchange program and play baseball at Fukuoka’s Yanagawa high school,  is behind the prospective move to Japan. The Hawks, who play their home games in Fukuoka, would certainly be the most convenient destination for Jose if exchange program works out.

Contreras has been in Japan with his family since November 25th, and has so far taken his son to visit his prospective high school, met sumo wrestler Kotoshogiku, and thrown for a SoftBank scout. The family plans to take in a few sites before returning home on December 7th.

A couple of player personnel notes to pass along…

• Sanspo via Yahoo! Japan is saying that the Chiba Lotte Marines have added Dodgers lefty Eric Stults to their shopping list. Based on the one game I saw Stults pitch, a dominant performance against the Giants, I thought he was a pretty good prospect. I didn’t realize he was 29.
• According the same article, the Marines are nearly done with a deal for Blue Jays lefty Bill Murphy, who tried out for the team along with Bryan Corey and a couple others last month. Lotte sees Murphy as a middle reliever.
• Keiichi Yabu wants to make a comeback. This makes me wonder what Akinori Otsuka is up to.
• Masahide Kobayashi’s deal with Yomiuri is for one year at 50m yen ($500k) with 100m yen ($1m) in performance bonuses. Here’s a pic of him high above the Big Egg.
• Termel Sledge could get an official offer from Yokohama as soon as December 2. Word has it that the offer could exceed 400m yen ($4m) over two years.
• The Yomiuri Giants aren’t denying interest in Nippon Ham free agent Shugo Fujii.
• Orix is negiotating with former Blue Wave outfielder So Taguchi. Taguchi doesn’t have a preference between Japan and the US for 2010.

Former Hanshin Tiger Aarom Baldiris will be reuniting with his former manager, Akinobu Okada, as a member of the Orix Buffaloes. In a Sponichi interview, Baldiris said, “I received couple offers from NPB clubs, but I wanted to play for the manager whom I started with in Japan. I hope to do my best to contribute for a championship.”

In two seasons with the Hanshin Tigers, Baldiris hit .205 with a total 4HR and 17RBI in 100 ichi-gun games. He had success at the ni-gun level, hitting .358 to lead the league in his second season.

以前、広島カープがドジャースAAAのアルバラード投手の獲得を目指していたことをお届けしましたが、あるソースによりカープと複数年契約を交わしたことが明らかになりました。情報によるとオプションを含む3年契約で契約合意に至ったようです。

Edit: I toned down the language in this post slightly after re-reading the original article.

Here’s one I didn’t quite expect: Hochi Sports is reporting that the Orix Buffaloes and Tuffy Rhodes have failed to come to an agreement on a contract for 2010, and that Orix is breaking off negotiations. This could signal the end of Tuffy’s second stint with the Buffaloes.

According to the report, Orix offered Rhodes a salary of 250m yen ($2.5m) for 2010, a big step down from the 350m yen ($3.5m) he was paid in 2009. Orix decided to move on after not hearing back from Rhodes. Tuffy missed almost half of 2009 due to a broken wrist suffered from being hit by a pitch, but still hit .308 with 22 home runs and 62 RBI. Negotiations had apparently been rocky, but given that Orix was talking about making him a player-coach next year I fully expected him to be back. Maybe they’ll find a way to get back on track; maybe this is a hardball negotiating tactic on Orix’s part.

Having played in NPB since 1996, Tuffy is unquestionably the elder statesman among foreign players in Japan. He’s also a rare foreign player feel-good story, having returned to Osaka to put up three excellent seasons after his bust-up with Yomiuri and subsequent year out of baseball. Hopefully Tuffy will continue his career; at first glance Rakuten and Nippon Ham seem like good fits.

Hiroshima’s final offseason acquisition target is Giancarlo Alvarado, who pitched with the Los Angeles Dodgers AAA team last season with a 13-10 record with a 3.49 ERA. Alvardo was also a member of the Puerto Rico WBC team in the previous tournament. Hiroshima likes Alvardo’s flexibility to both start and relieve.

With Mike Schultz returning and the team working on bringing Colby Lewis back, Alvarado projects as depth/insurance.

A few weeks ago, when the news of Jose Contrera’s prospective move to Japan broke, I speculated that SoftBank and Hiroshima would be the two most logical destinations, given their proximity to the school his son wants to attend.

Take SoftBank off the list, at least for now, citing roster space problems, and uncertainty about where they would use him. SoftBank is working to retain import pitchers Brian Falkenborg, DJ Houlton and Justin Germano. Keeping all three would make a spot on the top roster pretty tough for anyone else to get. SoftBank acknowledges though, that Contreras could become an option in the event of an in-season injury, and Nikkan Sports suggests they could take another look at the Cuban veteran if current negotiations falter.