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The story
The Hiroshima Toyo Carp terminated the contract of infielder Kaito Kozono (this season’s salary: ¥150 million), and a 5ch thread picked up on a tricky question: teams considering signing him have no idea what salary to offer. Kozono himself denies allegations of ties to organized crime (so-called “anti-social forces”), and while the club hasn’t presented concrete evidence and he hasn’t even been referred to prosecutors, the team cited an inability to “build a relationship of trust” as grounds for the release. In the thread, opinions split over how serious a release over conduct issues really is, what a fair salary would look like, and how this compares to past players who ran into similar trouble.
What people said
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OjJIJYYkWVs
Use him where, though?
This release was the kind where Hiroshima basically threw up their hands and gave up on him.
Getting cut for "can't build a relationship of trust"
is way harsher than just being told you're surplus to needs or outside the team's plans.
Even his influencer wife felt enough legal risk
to go ahead and divorce him.
Forget athlete — this is "disqualified as a human being" territory, right?
Kozono was hyped as a huge draft prospect, and I'm pretty sure his high school coach gushed about how he was such a hard worker that a practice-heavy team like Hiroshima would suit him perfectly. Where did it all go wrong?
He reportedly told the team during questioning that he "didn't know anything about the zombie thing" (a slang term for a certain synthetic drug), then got busted when a photo surfaced.
Back in the day, pro baseball fans used to criticize the people who criticized players' off-field behavior like this.
That mindset is gone in Japan now, and not just in baseball.
Even Hitoshi Matsumoto (Japan's biggest comedian) got taken down by it.
Everything changed after COVID.
People did generally criticize it back then too — it's just that the die-hard fans were the ones going "Don't cut him if he's still useful on the field!"
It's the Mexican League for Kozono now.
Honestly I'd love to see some team sign him anyway and then have the "zombie" thing blow up on them.
Meanwhile the coaching staff had been playing him in the minors all along like he was still part of next year's plans.
Right now they've drained the pus, but the sac that was holding it is still there.
Unless they remove the sac (the owner), it's just going to happen again.
It'd be a rescue for an innocent young guy whose baseball career got shut down on a "guilty until proven innocent" basis — same as Yamakawa. He passes.
Not that I have any clue where Bauer's even playing these days.
Wasn't there literally just news about him in a traffic accident, lol
I don't want to look at the "Acorns" (a mocking nickname for Hanshin's current undersized infield) anymore.
What Hanshin actually needs is someone who can field, so it'd be Yano, not him.
Kozono's shortstop defense is basically the same as Motoyama's.
Chunichi — ¥4 million development deal → promoted to the active roster at ¥6 million
Then the following year, ¥50 million
Something like that would be fine, right?
Yeah, but Nori didn't actually do anything wrong.
They'd definitely be useful there, and it'd balance out the farm-team power dynamics.
Ever heard of "corporate image"?
That alone already makes this bad.
At that rate about half of all pro baseball players would disappear.
It really just comes down to whether prosecutors decide to indict — and if they don't, Kozono ends up looking like the victim here.
His situation's different from the two guys who actually had their homes raided, I'd think, but somehow both cases ended in contract termination.
It's a trust issue, plain and simple.
"No proof of guilt" isn't the same as "proven innocent," so it can't be helped.
Kozono hasn't even been referred to prosecutors, though.
Technically speaking, isn't this
not a mid-contract termination,
but just an ordinary free-agent release
during the normal roster-cut notice period, same as any other team?
If that happens, just cut him then.
Every club must want him so bad it hurts.
Conduct problems clear up fast anyway.
Still, he's basically a third-base-only guy with this level of hitting — is he really worth stretching for?
Conduct problems never actually go away.
Just look at Kiyota.
Both Hazuki and Kozono ending up like this — whoever called that had some serious foresight.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Kozono had been under contract this season at a salary of ¥150 million, but Hiroshima went ahead and terminated it, citing an inability to “build a relationship of trust.” He denies the allegations, the club hasn’t presented concrete evidence, and — as the thread itself points out — he hasn’t even been referred to prosecutors. In other words, “no referral, no indictment” doesn’t mean the allegations have been cleared; what the club prioritized wasn’t legal guilt but the breakdown of trust, a distinction readers can easily conflate. Where the thread split was over whether conduct problems get overwritten by on-field talent, or whether — as in past similar cases — they end up casting a long shadow. On the question of a fair salary, concrete figures like “around ¥50 million” came up, while others took a harsher view by citing the past pay-cut case of Norihiro Nakamura — all reflecting the fact that there’s no settled consensus on his market value.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyou G) thread “11 teams unsure “how much would be insulting to offer” Kaito Kozono (this season’s salary ¥150 million)”.
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