The manager of the Japan Series champion Yokohama DeNA BayStars says NPB teams have to do their best to adjust when they lose star players to Major League Baseball.
There is no point in fretting or feeling sorry for yourself. Daisuke Miura knows what he's talking about.
Shota Imanaga went 11-4 for the BayStars in 2022 and then posted a 7-4 record the following year.
Yokohama's best pitcher then signed a four-year $53 million USD (about ¥7.7 billion JPY) contract with the Chicago Cubs before the start of the 2024 season.
To make matters even more challenging, Yokohama's 10-game winner Trevor Bauer decided to head back to the United States after the 2023 season to try to reignite his career in MLB.
Many thought it would be curtains for the BayStars, but they went out and won the Japan Series on November 3, beating the heavily favored Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in six games.
Sasaki's Departure from NPB
Now with star pitcher Roki Sasaki going to the majors next season, the Chiba Lotte Marines will find themselves in the same situation and Miura had a little advice during a recent press conference at The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.
"There is nothing we can do about it because each individual player has their own dream to pursue," Miura said. "Some want to play among the best of the best players in the world and some want more salary, honestly."
Not every team has fared as well as Yokohama did after losing a star pitcher to the majors.
The Orix Buffaloes won the Pacific League pennant three years in a row from 2021 to 2023.
After losing standout pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the Los Angeles Dodgers after the 2023 season, the Buffaloes slumped to a fifth-place finish this season in the six-team Pacific League.
'Make Japanese Baseball More Attractive'
Miura said teams have to take the loss of such players as a motivating factor.
"It is true that we have to make more efforts to make Japanese baseball more attractive," Miura said. "But after Imanaga and Bauer left the team, what we hated most was to be told, 'You are now going to be weaker because you don't have Imanaga and Bauer this year.' That's something that we wanted to prove wrong."
Miura went on to say it's up to the remaining players and the managers and coaches to create a winning atmosphere even after a big-name player departs.
"So, if the members playing in Japan play at the best of their ability, the fans will be happy to see it and this year we did that and almost every game was sold out," Miura said.
The 50-year-old former pitcher added, "We want to create an atmosphere where foreign players will want to come to play in Yokohama, we are aiming to be the best team in the world."
BayStars Owner Namba Shares Her Perspective
DeNA owner Tomoko Namba concurred with her ever-popular manager.
"[Japanese] baseball has its own strengths," Namba said at a recent press conference at the Japan National Press Club. "It's good to see the growth of the game on both sides of the Pacific."
Namba did say that NPB needs to find a way to reward players better in order to cut the salary gap with MLB.
"We need to make more efforts to pay more to players," Namba said. "All of us have to think harder to make the baseball business stronger and more profitable."
Tokyo Yakult Swallows third baseman Munetaka Murakami and Yomiuri Giants third baseman Hayato Sakamoto top the list of the highest-paid Japanese players with an annual salary of $3.9 million (about ¥602 million).
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Author: Jim Armstrong
The author is a longtime journalist who has covered sports in Japan for over 25 years. You can find his articles on SportsLook.
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