The NPB Giants approved the posting of slugger Kazuma Okamoto, making him eligible to transfer to the MLB.
Gaijin Baseball taking another L. He is so unreliable when it comes to NPB news. The guy keeps on whiffing by pretending to understand how NPB teams operate. He did it with Sasaki, Okamoto and plenty more.
the “know it all” guy
I like yakyu Cosmo more
Yakyu Cosmo has more respect for his readers. He is more careful. As a talent evaluator, I do not really rate him that high. However, teams seem to follow his account carefully. Because the talents he hypes up get a lot of attention. He is too optimistic about haifu players (because he is half as well) and American players such as Foster Griffin, who is constantly injured.
I don’t even understand the name Gaijin baseball. Isn’t Gaijin a slur?
Yes, but it is very fitting name for how he acts.
I see. Yeah, he used to post clips here on reddit but stopped. I think one of his accounts flipped out when I made a post about NPB. I don’t know why these online personas have such an inflated sense of self worth.
The guy got banned. Thecursedlexus or some shit. I think he also had another account where he was cosplaying a Hiroshima Carp fan and would reply to people that would criticise his main account. He would argue why his main account was correct. Man, I feel petty and pathetic for knowing this haha
yep that’s it
Holy shit throwback
Its more not very polite than a slur per se–depends how its used.
It is, but I think these days it’s been somewhat reclaimed. I know foreign pro wrestlers call themselves that.
Ehh that’s a very complicated question. Gaikokujin is now the more socially acceptable term, but gaijin in and of itself doesn’t have a negative connotation.
Tbf on him, this is the first time Kyojin are posting a player as they have historically been against it. Sugano was seen as a special exception because he was blood related to their former manager.
Whenever Japanese media are so adamant about it and it is very obvious that they have sources that are very close to Okamoto (I think Boras). Then you cannot just wipe this away and call people out on conventional wisdom, because “the Giants never post”.
He did the same with Sasaki last year. He lectured Jim Allen of all people about it. Jim Allen used to work for Daily Yomiuri and Kyodo News, while Gaijin Baseball has zero connections. Jim said that he had a reliable source that claimed that the move was coordinated by Dentsu, the Japanese ad and pr agency. However, instead of exploring this fact further, Gaijin Baseball claims that there was zero chance it would be happen because the Marines would miss out on the posting fee. He does not find it weird that Dentsu, a big organisation, is pulling the strings behind closed doors.
After he was proven wrong… He keeps being obtuse by claiming that Sasaki has a preference for the Padres, because a one year old Japanese news article wrote about it. After Sasaki turns down the Padres, he claims that the Blue Jays are the front runner. The guy is superarrogant and he annoys me massively when I read his tweets. Never willing to eat crow.
weebo wannabe npb “insider”
It’s always a red flag when someone doesn’t like any baseball but Japanese baseball. They’re more Japanese fans then baseball fans
Thing (Japan) moment
i agree with everything you said im just shocked kyojin are actually posting their franchise star in his peak tbh
One year left on his contract and Japanese talents are much more appreciated nowadays due to the WBC 2023 win and how they all pan out afterwards. It is only five years ago that MLB teams would lowball Sugano, the absolute ace of the Giants back then. If Sugano was around 30 now (and still in his prime), he would easily get 5y/100m. Back then they would give him something like max 5y/50m. Funny enough, I think he got significantly more in AAV from the O’s (when he is past his prime) than back then. They were still lowballing Imanaga and Senga a few years ago. MLB teams used to pay SP4/5 money for Japanese aces. They did the same with position players.
But with the weaker yen and the more lucrative contracts, a generous posting fee can change an NPB team completely.
That’s what turned me off of Gaijin. Anyone who listens to reads Jim Allen content for 5 minutes knows the guy comes off as extremely respectful, careful, and measured. Trying to play the 2025 talking heads game of “YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT” is silly against that type of precise reporting.
Allen was so careful about it that he didn’t even publish it as a report, he simply pawned it off as speculation and rumor mongering and he was right.
Jim Allen comes across as an old school reporter that still does his own leg work. When there were rumours that Sasaki would get posted, he calls up all his old mates from his reporting days. Guy gets some leads about a potential clause and backing from Dentsu and writes about it in a precise manner on his blog. Gaijin waves it off and calls it bullshit, because he used Google translate on Yahoo Japan news.
Isn’t he also an SF Giants fan for MLB lol
I think Yakyu Cosmo is a SF Giants fan. Not sure about Gaijin Baseball. I think he is from Canada or I vaguely remembered something like that, so it might be Jays?! But I think he ain’t a fan of anything from MLB. He has a constant hate boner for MLB and always uses NPB as a way to devalue MLB. Cal Raleigh hits 40 home runs? There is some catcher in the eighties that has done it in Japan before. Dodgers sweep the Brewers? The guy will post some stats about how Hanshin destroyed the Dodgers during exhibition games at the Tokyo Series.
Oh gotcha. Yeah lol ik he loves bringing up random expo games against MLB teams
Think Gaijin said he was a Red Sox fan (which makes sense given how insufferable he is). His now banned account had a Red Sox flair iirc
Yakyu Cosmo is confirmed to be SF Giants fan. He was somewhat active in the Giants subreddit before his account was also banned
Why do these guys get banned? I understand why Gaijin gets banned as he is very confrontational (very snobbish against people with a genuine interest), but how was Yakyu Cosmo in the Giants subreddit? Also confrontational?
No idea as to why he was banned, but I believe he wasn’t confrontational at all; he acted like a typical Reddit user on a team subreddit in there
YakyuCosmo’s initial twitter account got banned I think for using pics and/or vids without permission. I’ve noticed he stopped doing that on the current account
In case of Okamoto’s posting, Kyojin had no other choice. If they don’t allow him to be posted this off season, he would choose domestic FA next off season and go to Hanshin.
He suuuuucks, he’s like the amalgamation of the worst trait of gaijins
That guy is such an idiot lol
Was he the one who reported Sasaki promising not to play until he was posted?
Because if so, I have to MASSIVELY overhaul my thoughts on Sasaki.
Unfortunately there just isn’t a lot of quality English language content about the NPB. As a fan who tries to follow the league from Australia sometimes it feels like they’re behind a firewall.
Francys Romero immediately got debunked at the span of a day, dunno where that sources of him are coming from though saying that Kazuma Okamoto won’t be posted considering that the Yomiuri Giants are already open to posting their players to MLB after agreeing to post Shun Yamaguchi in 2019 and Tomoyuki Sugano in 2020 during the offseason.
It is fairly obvious that his tweet was not reliable. “Industry sources” are as good as you and me. Those are just people working in the industry (such as fellow journalists covering NPB or rival agents/teams). If he had a very reliable source, he would say “Sources close to Okamoto or, even more specific, sources within the club”. When Japanese media speculated that Sasaki and Sugano would be available, it was always “sources close to Sasaki or sources close to Sugano”.
If you read “industry sources,” “unnamed sources,” and “sources which prefer to remain anonymous,” as “some guy,” it really increases reading comprehension.
Still I find it weird that Romero is throwing this tweet in the world. It was fairly obvious from the Japanese media that Okamoto was close to posting. These guys regularly talk to Boras directly. Heck, Boras even updates them about Fujinami’s wish to return to MLB next year. Okamoto, after Romero‘s tweet, said that he could not confirm that he would not get posted (in other words, he was basically admitting that he WOULD get posted). No idea why Romero nowadays throws shit about Japanese players on the internet. I guess his source might be a Latin-American team mate of Okamoto.
Writers chase clicks, not reality.
Yeah, but still. A Latin-American expert dabbling in the world of Japanese baseball players… Very weird. Especially because there are some Cuban studs in Japan. What is going to happen to Moinelo (top 2, if not best pitcher of this year in NPB) and Raidel Martinez (arguably best closer in NPB). Will they finally defect? Will they stay? That would really get clicks, but never saw a story about it.
shocked that the giants posted him!!!! woah!!!
this means you guys are gonna sign him now 😭
I assume Dodgers are banking on Murakami.
Maybe I’m wrong but Murakami doesn’t really seem like the type of position player FA they’d really be committed to signing, there’s been basically no noise in Dodger-world about him compared with the leadups to Shohei’s and Roki’s free agencies
I suspect the Dodgers are only really in on the pitchers posted and not any of the position players. They need, very specifically, a RF.
The only guy that truly interests me is Imai because of the arm slot
True, just thinking Okamoto isn’t getting any younger. If they don’t pick up his option, I guess Okamoto be an immediate Muncy replacement until Freddie is done? I don’t know what his fielding ability is outside of them saying he is 1B/3B.
Yeah if they had to select one of the two, I feel like Okamoto would be the freeman replacement in the medium term, but they love Muncy and he has a cheap club-option for ‘26 so I don’t really see them moving on from him for a 30 year old coming from another league. Neither of them are really great fits for the Dodgers
damn. this guy’s a special talent. will be interesting to see how his and murakami’s markets develop
Might be more interest in Okamoto. Less risky profile for less money. Lower ceiling, higher floor. With Murakami you’re betting on Schwarber upside, with Tsutsugo floor. Okamoto’s probably somewhere between Seiya and Yoshida.
Fuck it, just buy them all and try to recreate Samurai Japan and see whether they can compete.
SP: Imai and Saiki
1B: Okamoto
3B: Murakami
DH/LF (via trade): Yoshida
OF (via trade): Nootbaar
Fill out the rest with your own players.
The variance on the swing or miss guys are insane. Nick Kurtz for example has a 30% K rate and similar contact rates to what Murakami has posted. He still batting .290 despite it all. The downside is you got a Joey Gallo or Chris Davis (bad version) floor.
The problem is Murakami’s contact rates are worse than Kurtz this year… in the NPB. Japan produces a ton of good pitchers, but few of them have overwhelming strikeout stuff. Few also throw over 96, which is basically the MLB average fastball at this point.
to me, he is the best NPB player who’s coming to MLB this offseason. Murakami might produce more HRs but his lack of defense and high strike out rate especially against high velo makes him a very risky investment in my eyes. Okamoto has maintained similar OPS as Murakami throughout his career with better plate discipline and offers better glove.
a few years too late. he’s very talented, but he’s almost 30 years old.
Arguably his best year though, just injury shortened. I think it’s feasible (hot take: likely) he has a better MLB career than Murakami.
I felt like Murakami will not living up to expectation/ceiling.
I just worry about the contact, specifically against velo.
And that is exactly why I have this feeling. I have a feeling he cant adjust to something even harder than what he is having (and not very good at) in Japan.
Has there been great players in the NPB that’s couldn’t transfer over to the majors because of NPB interference and not letting the person go?
Can the majors buy out a contract from the NpB to get a player that they really want? Has that ever happened?
No, it’s part of the NPB-MLB agreement that players have to go through the posting system. Established after assorted shenanigans in the 90s - Nomo, Soriano, Irabu.
The situation you mention did come up with Irabu - the Padres bought his contract, but he had zero desire to play for the Padres so he was traded to the Yankees.
Yeah but has there been players that wanted to be posted but the team in NPB said no? And thus delayed their majors debut?
Sure. See any Giants player before 2019. Koji Uehara wanted to be posted by the Giants, but they “didn’t recognize the posting system” and he had to wait out the nine years until international free agency.
Damn that’s brutal.
…but at the same time who the FUCK would willingly get rid of him
Easily one of the top 3 closers the Sox have had in my lifetime
Idk, seems like he’s on the perfect career trajectory to win a WS MVP in 7 years.
Just remember, ichiro didn’t play in MLB until he was 28.
LOL. okamoto is not ichiro.
This is not something Yomiuri does very often. It’s one thing to post 37 year old sugano, but Oka is far younger and will command a MUCH bigger contract
It’s one thing to post 37 year old sugano
The Yomiuri Giants first posted Tomoyuki Sugano back in December 2020 btw, he was still 31-years old that time and he posted a 14-2 record with an ERA of 1.97 in 20 games played (137.1 innings pitched) but no MLB team signed him, this was likely due to the Covid-19 pandemic still rampant during that year resulting for no MLB team to sign him despite a strong performance during the 2020 NPB regular season.
Not to mention the Yomiuri Giants also posted Shun Yamaguchi in December 2019 in which the Toronto Blue Jays eventually signed him to a 2-year contract.
Let the games begin!
We all know how this ends….
Congrats to the Dodgers!
Yankees if he’s fine platooning with McMahon
Red Sox with Bregman Opting out
Dodgers Left Field if they’re desperate enough for Japanese
Mariners if they decide to part ways with Naylor and Suarez
Phillies if they find a way to trade Bohm
Edit: i really think he’s perfect fit for Sox. Younger Bregman, similar defense, power and ceiling but lower AAV
Ideally the Mariners resign naylor and let Suarez walk. Oakamoto is a gold glove defender at third so he’s a great fit for the Mariners who have no obvious fit at third base in the system.
That’ll will probably block Mariners top 1 prospect Emerson who plays SS/3B
And they usually don’t sign big contracts so it will be a tough decision to do
Emerson seems like he’ll stick at short (defense wise). And JP Crawford isn’t good enough to really block Emerson if Emerson actually adjusts to MLB pitching when he graduates.
I mean they DO sign big contracts, it tends to be pitchers because they love pitching in our park. On the FA hitter side it’s moreso hitters not wanting to come to TMobile. We reportedly had the same offer the BoSox gave Trevor Story, and we were front runners for Kris Bryant before lol Rockies. The only reason we landed Cano and Cruz was we had to tack on extra years and beat other offers handedly and Dipoto hates overpaying for FA likely from Arte meddling during his Angels days.
Meh, there is some chatter about JP being a little older, that Emerson has a path through him
Pretty sure Naylor stays and Geno walks. It’s the most obvious thing to do. But if I’m the Mariners I’d more interested in consistent base hitters than big bats right now.
cant see him going to the dodgers as will likely not be consistently starting
Yankees aren’t signing this guy to a big deal just to platoon with McMahon
People need to stop having PTSD and be realistic about the current era Yankees, who still spend but make much more shrewd moves these days.
Cubs need an outfielder. I could see Jed pursuing if the price is right and he can’t land anyone else. I’d much rather have Tucker back or Schwarber though.
McMahon and Rice and maybe could even spot some starts in the OF depending on what we do there. It wouldn’t be a conventional starter spot, but I think we can fit a starter amount of ABs for him if it happens.
This guy is better than Murakami, but just older. He will have better stats in the first 2-3 years.
If I were a GM for an MLB team, I would pay attention to how Samurai Japan will be constructed and perform at the next WBC. This offseason you can buy half of their infield (Okamoto and Murakami). Imai and Saiki will likely also get posted.
The Dodgers and Cubs can basically recreate Samurai Japan and fill out Japan’s weak spots with better players (such as at short stop or catcher). But even other teams can mimic a big chunk of Samurai Japan. Especially if you can find trades for Senga, Yoshida and Nootbaar, who all had a down year.
Recreating Samurai Japan will probably also be cheaper than chasing the top tier players this offseason. Hopefully Preller will have an epic coke bender and decides to just recreate Samurai Japan to compete.
Yes please
I would love to see the Cubs try it. 1B Okamoto, 2B Hoerner, SS Swanson, 3B Murakami, LF Happ, CF PCA, RF Seiya, C Kelly. Rotation with Horton, Steele, Boyd, Imanaga, Imai, Saiki.
You can also swap Okamoto and Murakami, but Samurai Japan tends to run Okamoto at 1B and Murakami at 3B - which worked fine. Should work even better if you have Swanson and Hoerner at defense. This is a very good team. The bullpen is the only problem, but bullpen arms can be found anywhere.
Busch has got to stay in there somewhere though
Then use Murakami as DH. He is not a good defender anyways. Shift Okamoto to 3B. You can also trade Busch (and Shaw) for bullpen arms.
Imai and Saiki were not in Samurai Japan 2023 though.
“We recreate it, we recreate Japan in the aggregate.”
Glad not as many people are beating a rotting, dead horse with Dodgers jokes.
Id like to see Texas make a play. I like him more than Murakami
Fits a need for sure.
I would, as well. For all the ground work we did with “Recruiting” Yu Darvish and building relationships in Japan, we really haven’t seen that come to fruition with the last few big-name NPB postings.
I know we are trying to trim payroll, though. That will likely be the biggest inhibitor here.
We’re sorry in advance
Idk though. He’s already 29 and mostly 1B/3B, which, we’ve already got Freddie and will probably pick up Max’s option. Then Freeland did fine at 2B/3B this year. The squad needs to get younger, not get more players going into their 30s lol.
no noise at all for any of those players. i dont see any moves except maybe a 1 year deal to a LF until one of sirota, hope, or depaula can play in the majors
I’m 95% sure that Hanshin will be posting Saiki, who is one of the best pitchers in NPB, after the Japan Series. He is the best Japanese pitcher to move to the MLB since Yamamoto. I wonder if MLB teams will wait until Saiki makes a decision to sign other Japanese players.
Imai > Saiki
Yeah, I feel like Saiki’s profile is geared towards a more #4 or #5 in the rotation. Imai has the potential to be a #2.
Okamoto, Murakami, Imai, and Saiki are probably the only players MLB teams will have genuine interest in.
Saiki has a higher ceiling in my opinion. Elite extension and elite spin. He needs someone to help him improve his swing and miss stuff. A bit like Sasaki when he came over (albeit less talented of course). Good project though.
Imai has a really low release angle and a weird slider though. I think he is more polished. Ceiling might be a right-handed Kikuchi.
Both have good velo. Would not surprise me if both pan out extremely well.
Congrats on being a Dodger
Just send him right to the Dodgers, it’s pointless really.
Pick up the phone Hazen
Nah, 5 more years of Pavin 😛😛😛😛😛😛
japanese player ? hmmmmm …
Lmao I saw an article yesterday it was unlikely. I guess that guys sources were bullshit.
Okamoto said, “I don’t really have an ideal team. I’d be happy to join anywhere if they want me,” showing that he’s open to all 30 clubs. Knowing his personality, I actually think he means it, haha. I believe he has a real chance with any team other than the Dodgers. It’s rare to see a Japanese player like that, so fans of every team should feel hopeful.
rare giants posting
So do you think the Dodgers give it a couple weeks before announcing his signing after the World Series, or do it right away?
Saw this guy play live. Real deal. Dude can crush the ball.
This intrigues me
Shocked he got posted considering his player specific cheers were much louder than other players when I went to the Tokyo dome
KAZUMA KAZUMA KAZUMA!
If he’s nearly 30, does he just sign through free agency, or as an international amateur free agent? Because only the latter has the bonus cap. Which ironically is what makes the playing field so uneven in terms of guys like Sasaki. But Sasaki was way younger, I feel like this guy needs to go through full free agency right?
Fuck mariners used to trade players all the time for “international cash” never used it, we gotta have a Scrooge Mcduck pile somewhere
Let me take a guess who the front runners will be… rhymes with Lodgers or Spankees…
It’s going to be the Dodgers or Mariners.
The End.
Future Dodger… :/
Don’t forget that the Giants have a very strong scouting team in the Asia-Pacific region.
Prob not