Ori, Fukuya Yamazaki, and other notable players failed to be acquired across the board…?

The FA battle is in full swing.

Orix’s Fukuya Yamazaki, who won double-digit games this season, Seibu’s Hotaka Yamakawa, who has won the home run crown three times, Hiroshima’s mainstay Ryoma Nishikawa, and DeNA’s rotation pitcher Takehiro Ishida (……). The players who have declared their FA status must be very attractive to the teams. The players who have declared their FA status are probably all attractive to their respective teams.

However, there is one team that has been slow to make a move. The Giants, who used to dominate the money game with their abundant financial resources, have been sweeping up all the FA players. Why have they been so inconspicuous this offseason?

Collapsing Financial Advantage

In the off-season of 2009, owner Juichi Yamaguchi declared, “We will not take any FA players, but will strengthen our strength by raising the level of foreign players and young players,” and declared, “We will nurture and discover new players. New manager Shinnosuke Abe also seems to think that raising the level of the existing players is one of the most important issues. The emphasis on development must be the team’s policy.

However, the Giants have slumped to the “B” class for two consecutive years and have not won Japan’s top division since 2012. It is highly doubtful that they will be able to win the championship next year with a drastically strengthened existing squad. This does not mean that they will not strengthen FA. In fact, Abe himself attended the negotiations for Orix’s Yamazaki,” said a source close to the team.

The Giants, however, do not have the same advantage in negotiations with FA players as they did in the past.

The Giants, however, do not have the same advantage in negotiations for FA players as they did in the past. For example, the Giants are said to have offered Yamazaki 1 billion yen over four years. However, according to the sports papers, Softbank offered more than 1.2 billion yen for four years, which is more than the Giants’ offer. They also offered him the number 47, which had been worn by the previous aces such as Kimiyasu Kudo and Toshiya Sugiuchi.

Even outside of terms and conditions, the appeal of the Giants to FA players seems to be lessening.

One factor is the way the Giants deal with “outsider” players who have moved on. Symbolic of this is Sho Nakata (transferred from Nippon Ham in 2009), who left the Giants after exercising his opt-out right (the right for players to review or cancel their contracts on their own). Despite his competitive hitting, he was effectively deprived of his position and decided to leave the team in search of an opportunity to play. From the perspective of players from other teams, it is not surprising that the Giants are seen as a team that is cold to outsiders.

It may be that players from other teams are hesitant to play under Abe, who is said to be a strict coach. The Giants are now in a situation where the door for negotiations is closed to them.

Former manager Tatsunori Hara, who was entrusted with full authority, was able to reflect his own will in personnel matters. This will not be the case with the new manager Abe. Will he be able to clean up the team’s image and win the hearts of his favorite players with his “enthusiasm and human power,” not the amount of money he is willing to spend?