Why are so many of Japan’s elite professional ballplayers leaving for the greener financial pastures offered by MLB clubs?
Between the conclusion of the 2023 World Series and when the gates swung open for spring training 2024, the Los Angeles Dodgers doled out more than $1 billion on players that would ultimately yield them a World Series championship this fall.
The grand prize of all free agents available, Shohei Ohtani, signed a 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers. Negotiating a deferred payment plan, Ohtani will draw a $2 million salary through 2033. After that, between 2034–2043, the pitcher/designated hitter will be compensated $68 million per year.
Along with Ohtani’s contract, Los Angeles inked another high profile, highly successful pitching sensation from Nippon Professional Baseball—Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The right-hander signed a 12-year deal worth $325 million. The Dodgers were also obligated to pay a posting fee in the neighborhood of $50 million to Yamamoto’s former NPB club—the Orix Buffaloes.
As Japan’s finest sluggers and hurlers routinely are packing up, enticed by contracts that in the past would have been able to purchase one or two MLB franchises, one former MLB manager believes the departures aren’t solely about finances. Professional pride also is influential in baseball players taking flight to the United States.
“It’s not just about the money,” Bobby Valentine told The Epoch Times. “Ohtani and the other Japanese players have, I believe, a burning desire to reach the highest level of competition.”
Valentine is perhaps the go-to authority on the on-field and clubhouse inner workings of NPB in the United States. Along with his 16 seasons piloting MLB clubs, including marching the New York Mets to a 2000 National League pennant, he skippered the NPB Chiba Lotte Marines for seven seasons. In October 2005 the Marines, managed by Valentine, won the Japan Series. The Marines swept the Hanshin Tigers in four games for the NPB championship.
With NPB club owners collecting generous posting fees from MLB franchises just for the rights to negotiate with their top talent, and if signed, accepting the millions of dollars offered, Valentine feels that there are plans in the works to try and keep the home grown players from leaving Japan.
“Players coming here [to the United States] dilutes the quality of competition in Japan. [NPB ownership] needs to bring international expansion to the game. It hasn’t happened yet but to keep their younger players, this is where they need to look.”
When contemplating creating the infrastructure to keep their top stars from leaving their homeland for MLB clubs, Valentine goes on to suggest that NPB clubs need to look at their ballparks. He says that most stadiums in Japan that he has visited are old. Putting NPB fans in a more friendly, more comfortable atmosphere while attending ball games would be a step in the right direction, when making pledges to keep home grown talent.
Hanshin Koshien Stadium, home to the Tigers, opened in August 1924.
“They [NPB ownership] need to do everything in their power to create an atmosphere where players won’t want to leave,” says Valentine, a TV analyst for the Los Angeles Angels broadcast team. “The owners need to fill the ballparks.”
By retaining their top ballplayers, NPB owners could study the marketing prowess of how the Dodgers are capitalizing on Ohtani’s ever-exploding popularity with Angelenos. It is believed within the baseball industry that in year one of Ohtani’s contract, the Dodgers have hauled in $120 million in revenue.
Upping the average salary of NPB players could be a step in the right direction for the league in retaining their top tier talent. In 2024, the average NPB players salary was 47,130,000 Japanese yen. This translates to about $305,000 in U.S. dollars. The minimum MLB salary this past season was $740,000.
Valentine has a deep appreciation for NPB product. He immersed himself into the Japanese culture during his time with the Marines and speaks fluent Japanese. Among the players he managed for the Pacific League club, three were managing among the 12-team league this past season, eight held coaching positions, and a half dozen are coaching on the minor league level in Japan.
Ichiro Suzuki, predicted to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer headed for Cooperstown in 2025, logged a 19-season MLB career culminating with more than 3,000 hits. Prior to playing in the United States, Suzuki suited up for nine NPB seasons for Orix.
Hideki Matsui, who won a World Series championship with the New York Yankees in 2009, added 10 MLB seasons to his all-star resume. Prior to signing with the “Bronx Bombers” in 2003, Matsui excelled for a decade with the Yomiuri Giants.
The wave of top baseball talent from Japan to the United States over the past quarter century shows no sign of flattening out in the near future.
Increasing TV ratings, adding to building on their most marketable players, and addressing salary levels could only contribute to being a viable option in keeping their best swingers and throwers remaining at home.
