The reason for the rampant “Arihara-style FA” and the lamentation of NIHAM executives over the transfer of Naoyuki Uesawa.

Naturally, I thought he would come back to us.”

Softbank, which is suffering from a shortage of starters, will acquire Naoyuki Uesawa (30), an FA from the 3A affiliate of the Red Sox, a Major League Baseball team.

Uesawa, who was drafted sixth overall by Nippon Ham in 2011 out of Sendai Matsudo High School, is a talented pitcher who won his first professional game three years later and has appeared in three All-Star Games. Last offseason, he signed a minor league contract with the Rays via the posting system and was traded to the Red Sox just before the season opener.

He has a total of 70 wins in Japan. “In Japan, I won a total of 70 games, but in Major League Baseball, I finished the season with only two games pitched as a reliever. He felt the high level of competition in the U.S. and was devastated.

In September of this year, he injured his right elbow, and after returning to Japan, he was looking for a place to pitch next season while working hard on rehabilitation and training. ……

The first thing that he did from the beginning was to focus on a move to Japan. Naturally, our old club (Nippon Ham) had sent him an offer to return to Japan, and I thought he would return to our club.

When Uesawa left for the U.S., Tsuyoshi Shinjo, 52, said, “Everyone, please watch over Naoyuki Uesawa. He will do it! He was the person who supported Uesawa the most, sending messages to his fans on his SNS. It was only logical that he would return to Shinjo, who was willing to send him back to the team even though the team’s strength would be reduced.

However, Uesawa himself did not even look at us. …… He probably decided to go to the team with the best salary and other conditions. As a result, he decided to join Softbank, which has the financial strength.

Kohei Arihara (32), a pitcher who returned to Japanese baseball after posting from Nippon Ham, is fresh in our memories. A sportswriter familiar with professional baseball explains.

Arihara was posted to the Rangers in the off-season of 2008, but gave up after only two years and joined SoftBank for a total of 1.2 billion yen over three years. This has been derided by fans as “Arihara-style FA. This time, Uesawa followed the same path after only one year. Furthermore, Ariwara brought Nippon Ham a large amount of money when he moved to the Majors, while Uesawa brought only a free amount because he signed a minor league contract. That must have angered both the fans and the team (laughs).

Strict Budget Control

Why did Nippon Ham allow “Arihara-style FA” twice?

NIHON-HAM has a very strict budget control system. In the case of other teams with ample funds, even if they have to go a little over budget, they often prepare high annual salaries in order to show their good faith to those who have contributed to the team. However, Nichi-Ham does not add on any special treatment at all. Rather, it is Nippon Ham’s policy to give priority to raising the annual salaries of young stars such as Nakamasa Mannami (24), who has been active this season, with guns blazing.

However, it is natural for a player to judge the team’s evaluation and sincerity based on his “annual salary. When posting a transfer, the contract with the old team is over, so there is no rule that says the player must return to the team. Uesawa’s transfer this time may be against morals, but it is not against the rules. It is not right that only the player should be subjected to one-sided criticism.

From Uesawa’s point of view, he was simply acting in a straightforward manner by saying through his agent, “I will be indebted to the baseball team that evaluated me. However, it is sad that he did not seem to take into consideration the feelings of the Nichi-Ham fans who warmly sent him off to the U.S. when he left for the U.S.