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The story
On the 30th, the Yomiuri Giants announced they are trading catcher Takuya Kai to the Rakuten Eagles for cash, just two years into his free-agent contract. A cash trade in the middle of a five-year deal is unusual, and General Manager Mizuno explained, “He came to us with high hopes, but we just couldn’t give him playing time.” Kai reportedly couldn’t carve out a role within the existing catching corps, which includes Takumi Oshima and Yukinobu Kishida. Reactions on 5ch were split — some explained how catcher usage shifted after former manager Shinnosuke Abe’s departure, while others worried about the fallout this could have on future free-agent signings.
Giants release Kai: “He came to us with high hopes, but we just couldn’t give him playing time,” says GM Mizuno — unusual cash trade two years into a five-year FA contract
Fri, Oct 30, 12:21 PM JST
Daily Sports
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
But I guess they can't exactly come out and say 'his performance was a disappointment,' can they.
Well, if he's actually going to play in Rakuten, that's better for him anyway.
Plus he's made Giants connections now, so he's set even after he retires.
The only good stretch was the very start of year one, so they cut him loose.
They should just go sign Ota.
There's four: Oshima, Kishida, Yamase, and Kobayashi.
Rakuten needs to deal with Ishii.
Oshima never had Abe's trust, which is why they went and signed Kai in the first place.
Then once Abe left, Oshima started getting starts behind the plate again.
Literally nothing good came out of signing Kai.
Everyone ended up worse off.
Ohh~
The "Kai Cannon" → "Cannon" → just "the gun" (his famous throwing-arm nickname, getting shorter and blander each time).
The problem is this team insists on using him as the closer's personal catcher for some reason, and that's where it gets weird.
And when he does play, they've blown several leads with him behind the plate — that's the ugly part. Just stop using him as the closer's catcher already.
His arm's shot, his blocking has fallen off a cliff, and his bat is pitcher-level.
Not sure what Matsui thinks of him, but Yoshinobu Takahashi keeps praising Kobayashi on broadcasts, so there's a real chance he gets pushed into the No. 2 catcher spot on Takahashi's recommendation.
Kobayashi only hits in international games.
So in Tigers terms, he's kind of like Itohara and Kinami?
he's just been tossed aside, right?
or should he count himself lucky since he's a candidate to be Rakuten's starting catcher?
He's durable, so I think he actually can pull that off.
Is the "Watanabe Cannon" about to be born?
Seems like there'd be teams out there who'd want him.
If anything, it's BECAUSE they're going to use him that they didn't need Kai.
Yamase's a high school underclassman of Matsui's, so he's probably sticking with the Giants for a while.
Last year, when Matsui visited the Giants' farm team, he reportedly called out to Yamase with, "How much longer are you gonna be stuck down here?"
That's not happening, but it's probably more like Rakuten paid next to nothing, and the Giants covered most of his salary just to clear a roster spot.
and if they toss aside a guy who signed a five-year deal this fast, nobody's going to want to sign with them anymore.
This is a guy batting .204 even in the minors.
That's hilarious.
In Rakuten Points.
There's someone who should actually be getting fired here!? You know who — THAT guy.
Who? I dunno (´･ω･`)?
Background and Talking Points on This Story
Cases of a free-agent signee being traded away for cash mid-contract are rare in Japanese pro baseball, and this one exposes a mismatch between front-office roster planning and on-field usage. The thread split into two camps: those questioning Kai’s own performance, and those pointing out that the catching corps — already stacked with Takumi Oshima, Yukinobu Kishida, and Seiji Kobayashi — was simply overcrowded to begin with. Some posts tied the move to former manager Shinnosuke Abe’s departure, but the team’s official explanation framed it purely as a playing-time issue, and the article’s information doesn’t confirm any deeper personnel backstory. How letting go of an FA signee this early will affect the Giants’ future recruiting efforts — and how wary other teams might become about signing with them — wasn’t addressed in the thread, but it’s an easy point to overlook.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports Express+) thread “[Giants] Kai release explained as “He came to us with high hopes, but we just couldn’t give him playing time” by GM Mizuno — unusual cash trade two years into a five-year FA deal.”
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