Rakuten Eagles General Manager Kazuhisa Ishii (52) responded to an interview in Okinawa Prefecture on the 30th and mentioned reinforcements for this offseason.
In pitcher, Ken Maeda, who returned to the Japan baseball world for the first time in 11 years, Contreras, a right-hander with 10 wins in MLB, and Ureña, a right-hander with 44 wins in the same career, were reinforced and the starting lineup was thickened. In fielder, he succeeded in retaining Voight, who was active last season, and acquired McCasker as a new long-range gun. In the active draft, Sato joined from Softbank Hawks. He prepared his forces with active reinforcement.
The number of controlled players is now at 69, including Tanaka Sen, who was acquired as compensation for Norimoto, approaching the upper limit of 70. GM Ishii commented on the current quota situation, mentioning Taira and Koga, who were contracted from development to control in November of last year after performing well in the Eastern League. "In the end, we're at 69, but that's because we've promoted Koga and Taira from development. I think it would be risky if we had 69 without promoting those two, but we're only promoting the development players who showed some success last year, so we're at 69, so I'm not too worried about the quota," he said.
He also explained the reason for acquiring Tanaka Sen, saying, "His fastball is strong. His stats are slightly lower than when he made his debut, but there are elements in that area that could improve. He also has a strength in vertical movement that we don't have. If he can demonstrate that, he will become a player who can compete on the team. We need to see his aptitude, but theoretically, we wanted to strengthen our relief pitching, so that's why we asked him."
The baseball season is finally upon us. "We'll start with 69, and hopefully we can build a team structure and shape during training camp and be ready for the opening game," he said.
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