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The story
Nakagawa Keita (Orix, 30) is expected to become a free agent this offseason, and Yahoo! News reports that the Hanshin Tigers are preparing a four-year contract worth roughly ¥1 billion. Nakagawa has reached the minimum plate-appearance threshold only three times in his pro career, with a career-high line of .284/12 HR/55 RBI, and this season he hit .252/6 HR/33 RBI — numbers that hardly dazzle. The move is reportedly tied to Hanshin freeing up cash and outfield spots after a key infielder’s departure, as well as to this offseason’s free-agent market being thin on strong hitters. On 5ch, opinions split over whether Nakagawa is worth this kind of deal, with the discussion touching on his defense, his age, and how he stacks up against other outfield candidates.
Hanshin Tigers: “Pleeease give him to us!”
Hanshin preparing a 4-year, roughly ¥1 billion deal for Nakagawa Keita — will move immediately if he declares free agency, eyeing a right-handed power bat with the DH rule in mind
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Too bad — he's an outfielder, and a bad defender on top of that
Handing a 4-year megadeal to an injury-prone ("spe" — short for "Spelunker," 5ch slang for a fragile player) guy who's only hit the plate-appearance minimum three times is just dumb. All I can picture is him barely playing and turning into a dead-weight contract.
– Hanshin has extra cash from the Sato-Teru transfer fee
– For some reason there's no other strong free-agent hitter available this offseason
Lol, the timing of his free agency is so good that a mediocre player is about to land an insanely sweet contract
On top of that, the Central League adds the DH next season, so there's a mini boom in demand for hitters. And yet the only decent hitter besides him this offseason is Sakakura, so even a guy at Nakagawa's level is in high demand
Comparing him to an amateur like that is honestly kind of disrespectful
If Onodera's bald as an egg, then Nakagawa's got about as much hair as Kudoh Kimiyasu (legendary pitcher famous for his thick head of hair)
We're only paying 2 years, ¥600 million, thank you very much~
He can play center, right, left, first, and third. Though he hasn't played third in ages, so that's only for emergencies
He can technically play any outfield spot, but he's a bit shaky defensively
This year's free-agent class is just that weak overall. In a normal year, Nakagawa Keita is the kind of guy nobody would even notice, and he'd quietly stay with his old team
With Sato-Teru gone, they need to reinforce the roster
Because the books get settled within that same fiscal year
A three-peat is on the line. Hanshin's core players are all from the 'Otani generation' — Kinami, Konomoto, Oyama, Nagasaka, Fujinami, Hojo — meaning right now is as good as it gets and it's only downhill from here. They can't afford to wait.
Having Chu [nickname for Nakagawa] around makes it a little less grim
A four-year deal means they're committing to him through age 34, right? He's already pretty shaky now — can you really picture him not turning into a dead-weight contract (lit. 'death row inmate') once he's 34 and making ¥250 million?
He's an injury-prone ("spe") guy, so he'll probably get hurt around year two and end up living in the minors
Even if you're focused on development, you still need to reinforce the roster. If you try to build the team through the draft alone, you end up picking players based on positional need rather than pure talent
And Orix keeps poaching from Hiroshima, so it's basically a food chain
Honestly, in terms of total value on both sides of the ball, he's not that different from guys like Fukushima or Takadera……
That's just one more acorn added to the pile……
Maekawa: .218, 5 HR, 20 RBI, OPS .660
With the left-field competition looking like that, I don't know how Hanshin fans have the nerve to say they don't need him
Nakagawa Keita's OPS is .652, so it really is a case of 'acorns comparing height' (an idiom meaning none of them stand out — they're all equally mediocre)……
If his defense is actually good, there's a slim chance it works out
It makes a lot more sense to bet on Fukushima, Takadera, Maekawa, Tateishi, and Sakakibara developing than to bet on a Nakagawa Keita who's already past his peak age-wise
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Free-agent rights are granted to players under team control once they’ve been registered for a set number of years; there’s “domestic FA,” where a player can only negotiate with Japanese teams, and “international FA,” where overseas teams become negotiating partners too. The reported four-year, roughly ¥1 billion deal would be an extraordinary payday by the standards of a player still under team control, and the debate centered on whether Nakagawa’s track record justifies that price tag. He has reached the minimum plate-appearance threshold only three times in his career and has often fallen short of double-digit home runs, and the thread repeatedly invoked the slang term “spe” (short for “Spelunker,” meaning an injury-prone player) to describe him — though it’s also worth noting that with few strong free-agent hitters available this offseason, his relative market value has risen. Posters also floated Hanshin’s own motives — extra budget freed up by a key infielder’s departure, and a push for a right-handed power bat for the outfield ahead of the incoming DH rule — but it’s worth stressing these are speculation from the thread, not an official team statement.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “Nakagawa Keita (30), reached the plate-appearance minimum 3 times, career high .284/12/55, this season .252/6/33, outfielder, ¥1 billion total ← Want him?.”
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