Is Rakuten Plotting to “Acquire” Hanshin’s Ryutaro Umeno via Trade… Do His Desires for More Playing Time Align with the Team’s Plans!?

“If things keep going like this…”

It is reported that the Rakuten Eagles—who saw former manager Hajime Miki (49) dismissed and manager Masato Yoshii (61) take over in a surprise move—are plotting a new “strategic move.”

“It appears they are conducting behind-the-scenes investigations to acquire Hanshin’s veteran catcher Ryutaro Umeno (35).Umeno has been rotating with players like Seishiro Sakamoto (32), Torao Fushimi (36), and Rinshiro Shimamura (22) at Hanshin, and has spent much of this season in the farm system.On June 23, he demonstrated he’s still in top form by getting a hit immediately after being called up to the first team, but it’s said he’s still hoping to be traded to another team,” said a sports newspaper reporter.

In fact, it seems SoftBank—which acquired Yudai Yamamoto (27) from DeNA via trade—had also had Umeno on their radar…

“After seeing infielder Ryoya Kurihara (29) practicing as a catcher, CBO Kenji Jojima (50) instructed the front office, ‘That’s not a position you can take lightly. Find a proper catcher.’They had set their sights on Umeno—who is from Fukuoka Prefecture and reportedly wanted to return to his hometown—after picking up on that information, but his high annual salary of 120 million yen proved to be a stumbling block.

It’s said the Hawks then set their sights on the Giants’ Shinnosuke Yamase (25). However, that deal reportedly fell through as well due to a failure to agree on trade compensation. Amidst all this, the trade talks involving Yamamoto—which had been ongoing behind the scenes for quite some time—began to move forward again,” said a Pacific League team official.

Thus, the plan for Umeno to join his hometown team reportedly fell through, but the aforementioned sports newspaper reporter says that upon learning this, Rakuten seized the opportunity and launched a full-scale investigation.

“Rakuten’s catching corps consists of Hikaru Ota (29) and Hikaru Ito (37), both of whom have low batting averages and whose defense is far from stable. They likely believe it will be difficult to break out of their current slump with just these two.They seem to be attracted to Umeno, who combines experienced game-calling and excellent blocking skills with the mental toughness to aggressively drive the ball.” A change of environment might bring back his signature clutch hitting.

On the other hand, Hanshin manager Kyuji Fujikawa (45) does not hold Umeno in high regard, and after being ordered to train with the farm team for a while starting from spring training, Umeno exuded a sense of despair, muttering, ‘Is quitting my only option now…?’While a plan to exercise his free agency rights during the offseason and move to another team is a possibility, it wouldn’t be surprising if a sudden trade were to occur.”

Will Umeno, who has long served as the Tigers’ starting catcher, be released?