2019 Contract Negotiations: Ups and downs

It's hit the time for contract updates in the off season as the current roster is assessed on this year's performances while the 2018 draftees get signed up.

For the curious, you can look-up last year's salary figures here.

This should give us a bit of an idea as to how much we have on the wage bill. The retirements of Araki, Asao, Kudo and Iwase have freed up close to $3M just on their own which means more money to go around.

Losing Shunta Wakamatsu also frees up about $250k.

A big raise is expected for Daisuke Matuzaka who has performed well both on and off the field with some outlets suggesting he's in for a $1M salary for next year. If the Dragons want to keep their foreign players from this year, a lot more cash will have to be sunk into investing for their return as Almonte, Garcia and Moya all joined the team on very team friendly deals while Viciedo's best season to date will push up his value and salary expectations.

As this is ongoing, I will be updating this table each day as more information comes to hand. I will also include the salaries of the new draftees as negotiations start to occur. Hopefully by the end of the month we'll have a better picture of what the overall wage bill is and how we'll look in 2019.

For the sake of simplicity and to make it easier to understand I've gone with a straight 100 yen = $1 approach. Please also note that an asterisk denotes farm appearances as that player has not played with the first team. Also note that 未 refers to undecided.

As of the 19th, the big mover in the down direction is Katsuki Matayoshi who lost 25% of his salary due to having a down year. Last year he was one of the most reliable, this year, not so much. Raises for young guns Yu Sato and Shotaro Kasahara. Both represented Samurai Japan recently against an MLB selection side and have progressed quite well this year. Shuhei Takahashi too gets a bit raise after having his most successful season to date hitting double digit homeruns and appearing in 100+ games. Masaru Watanabe meanwhile moves up from a development contract to become a fully rostered player. Watanabe was one of the better hitters on the farm last year.

Big hits for bullpen arms as Shinji Tajima and Katsuki Matayoshi got hit hard for their inability to back up previous years' excellence. Yudai Ono too got a hard hit due to his inability to throw anything that would stick over the plate in his limited appearances in the first-team. Among position players Nobumasa Fukuda and Shuhei Takahashi have received large increases with both making their respective positions their own this year taking on plenty of PAs and churning out decent numbers.

Contract extensions were given to Shota Ono and Kazuki Yoshimi with both receiving increases. Ono was an FA last year so I don't really understand why he was signed to a 3-year, $2.5M deal this year, but he has been while Yoshimi similarly received a 2-year, $1.8M deal as he gets a minor premium for being eligible for domestic FA this year and throwing 120+ innings.

Big money and 3 years has been given to Dayan Viciedo as a reward for this good numbers last season while Almonte doubles his money.

Winners are grinners as Shotaro Kasahara picks up
a sizeable raise.

Pitcher	Age	Role	Wage	Up/Down	G	IP	W	L	SV	ERA	WHIP
Kazuki Yoshimi	34	RHP	$900k	︽$150k	20	125.2	5	7	0	3.87	1.273
Keisuke Tanimoto	33	RHP	$850k	-	8	9.2	0	0	0	14.90	2.586
Daisuke Matsuzaka	38	RHP	$800k	︽$650k	11	55.1	6	4	0	3.74	1.488
Shinji Tajima	28	RHP	$700k	︾$400k	30	28.2	0	4	15	7.22	1.674
Katsuki Matayoshi	28	RHP	$660k	︾$220k	40	41.1	2	5	0	6.53	1.718
Daisuke Yamai	40	RHP	$620k	︾$100k	10	62.1	3	6	0	4.04	1.219
Yudai Ono	30	LHP	$600k	︾$200k	6	27.1	0	3	0	8.56	1.866
Joely Rodriguez	27	LHP	$600k	︽$200k	26	27.1	0	3	1	2.30	1.317
Enny Romero	27	LHP	$500k	New Arrival
Toshiya Okada	27	LHP	$300k	︾$10k	27	21.1	1	0	0	5.06	1.734
Daisuke Sobue	31	RHP	$290k	-	51	48.2	2	2	0	3.14	1.315
Koji Fukutani	27	RHP	$230k	︾$50k	29	27	0	1	0	5.00	1.407
Hiroshi Suzuki	21	RHP	$220k	︽$70k	53	49	4	6	4	4.41	1.489
Shotaro Kasahara	23	LHP	$220k	︽$90k	20	108.2	6	4	0	4.14	1.371
Shinnosuke Ogasawara	21	LHP	$210k	-	17	107.1	5	6	0	4.11	1.444
Yu Sato	25	RHP	$200k	︽$90k	42	43.1	1	2	5	2.08	1.154
Yuya Yanagi	24	RHP	$145k	-	10	53.1	2	5	0	5.23	1.444
Junki Ito	27	RHP	$140k	︾$30k	11	13.2	2	0	0	3.95	1.756
Kento Fujishima	19	RHP	$120k	︽$54k	19	71.1	3	1	0	3.66	1.374
Ryosuke Oguma	28	RHP	$120k	-	8	43.1	3	4	0	6.23	1.408
Akiyoshi Katsuno	21	RHP	$120k	New Arrival
Kodai Umetsu	21	RHP	$120k	New Arrival
Shota Suzuki	23	RHP	$100k	︾$20k	2	8.2	0	0	0	5.19	1.962
Takuya Mitsuma	25	RHP	$100k	︾$20k	4	5.2	0	0	0	11.12	2.118
Raidel Martinez	22	RHP	$100k	-	7	21.2	1	3	0	6.65	1.662
Hiroto Fuku	26	LHP	$90k	︾$10k	1	0.1	0	0	0	0.00	3.000
Sho Ishikawa	19	RHP	$70k	-	1	1	0	0	0	0.00	0.000
Takuma Achira	26	RHP	$70k	︾$10k	18*	59.2	2	5	1	5.13	1.689
Yusuke Kinoshita	24	RHP	$70k	︽$28k	14	16.2	0	0	0	5.40	1.560
Tatsuya Shimizu	19	RHP	$70k	-	2	2	0	0	0	9.00	2.500
Taisuke Maruyama	23	RHP	$60k	︾$15k	*1	1	0	0	0	9.00	2.000
Tatsuro Hamada	24	LHP	$60k	︾$20k	*2	2	0	0	0	0.00	1.000
Tomohiro Hamada	26	LHP	$56.3k	-	*8	11.2	0	0	0	1.54	0.982
Kenshin Kakikoshi	18	LHP	$55k	New Arrival
Takumi Yamamoto	18	RHP	$55k	-	1	2	0	0	0	0.00	1.500
Akito Okura	24	RHP	$30k	-	*11	14	1	1	0	5.79	1.714
Kento Mark Ishida	23	RHP	$30k	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Position Player	Age	Role	Wage	Up/Down	G	BA	AB	HR	RBI	SB	OPS
Dayan Viciedo	29	IF	$3.6M	︽$1.9M	135	0.348	512	26	99	3	0.974
Yohei Oshima	33	OF	$1.8M	-	141	0.283	588	7	57	21	0.697
Ryosuke Hirata	30	OF	$1.8M	︽$600k	138	0.329	493	9	55	8	0.866
Zoilo Almonte	29	OF	$1M	︽$500k	132	0.321	498	15	77	1	0.861
Shota Ono	31	C	$1M	︽$450k	63	0.215	137	2	10	0	0.603
Atsushi Fujii	37	OF	$500k	-	96	0.241	145	3	30	0	0.649
Steven Moya	27	OF	$500k	-	46	0.301	93	3	16	0	0.787
Nobumasa Fukuda	30	IF	$470k	︽$110k	133	0.261	440	13	63	0	0.727
Yota Kyoda	24	IF	$450k	︽$50k	143	0.235	632	4	44	20	0.572
Shuhei Takahashi	24	IF	$350k	︽$185k	128	0.254	433	11	69	0	0.705
Naomichi Donoue	29	IF	$300k	-	74	0.213	47	0	6	0	0.491
Kyohei Kamezawa	30	IF	$260k	-	110	0.286	185	0	8	5	0.669
Masato Matsui	31	C	$200k	-	92	0.229	218	2	22	0	0.622
Akira Neo	18	IF	$150k	New Arrival
Shota Sugiyama	27	C	$150k	︾$50k	*49	0.230	74	0	5	1	0.654
Shingo Takeyama	34	C	$150k	-	30	0.068	44	0	6	0	0.267
Yusuke Matsui	31	OF	$150k	︾$10k	17	0.136	22	0	0	0	0.273
Takuya Kinoshita	26	C	$100k	︾$20k	16	0.120	25	1	2	0	0.494
Ariel Martinez	22	C	$100k	-	*39	0.239	94	0	9	0	0.605
Toshiki Abe	28	IF	$95k	︾$5k	18	0.217	23	0	4	0	0.656
Issei Endo	27	OF	$90k	︾$30k	2	0.000	1	0	0	0	0.000
Iori Katsura	27	C	$90k	︾$23k	*31	0.295	44	1	2	0	0.690
Masataka Iryo	29	OF	$72k	︾$18k	*60	0.243	169	1	14	2	0.644
Kaname Takino	21	OF	$72k	New Arrival
Hiroki Kondo	25	OF	$70k	︾$11k	5	0.000	4	0	0	0	0.000
Shota Tomonaga	27	OF	$65k	︾$5k	*89	0.184	212	0	9	5	0.522
Kota Ishibashi	18	C	$60k	New Arrival
Wataru Takamatsu	19	IF	$60k	-	*3	0.000	2	0	0	0	0.000
Ryota Ishioka	26	IF	$60k	︾$10k	*73	0.266	199	3	12	6	0.644
Taiki Mitsumata	26	IF	$60k	︾$10k	*90	0.176	221	1	17	0	0.504
Hayato Mizowaki	24	IF	$60k	︾$5k	*90	0.276	319	1	16	5	0.665
Shun Ishikawa	28	IF	$60k	-	1	0.000	1	0	0	0	0.000
Takuma Kato	26	C	$55k	-	*61	0.193	114	0	7	1	0.468
Kosuke Ito	19	OF	$55k	-	*93	0.198	237	2	15	4	0.494
Masami Ishigaki	20	IF	$54k	-	*100	0.183	328	1	24	3	0.490
Masaru Watanabe	25	OF	$50k	︽$20k	*68	0.244	135	2	11	6	0.694

Players Released/Retired

Araki and Iwase wave goodbye.

Pitcher	Age	Role	Wage	Up/Down	G	IP	W	L	SV	ERA
Dillon Gee	32	RHP	-	︾$1.7M	4	27	0	3	0	4.00
Hitoki Iwase	44	LHP	-	︾$750k	48	35	2	0	3	4.67
Takuya Asao	34	RHP	-	︾$560k	10	9.1	0	0	0	4.82
Onelki Garcia	28	LHP	-	︾$500k	27	168.2	13	9	0	2.99
Shunta Wakamatsu	23	RHP	-	︾$250k	*5	22.1	1	1	0	6.04
Shu Yoshida	22	RHP	-	︾$30k	-	-	-	-	-	-
Mikihiro Nishihama	25	RHP	-	︾$30k	-	-	-	-	-	-
Masashi Yamamoto	24	RHP	-	︾$30k	-	-	-	-	-	-

Position Player	Age	Role	Wage	Up/Down	G	BA	HR	RBI	OPS	SB
Masahiro Araki	40	IF	-	︾$700k	52	0.268	1	3	0.655	0
Takahito Kudo	37	OF	-	︾$210k	73	0.133	0	1	0.321	3
Tetsuya Tani	33	IF	-	︾$130k	3	0.000	0	0	0.000	0
Kei Nomoto	34	IF/OF	-	︾$98k	8	0.125	0	1	0.375	0

*Data correct as of 19th December 2018