Carter Stewart bypasses MLB Draft for Japan

[Frobby]

Scott Boras is at it again.  He’s sending 19-year old Carter Stewart to Japan for 6 years, $7 mm, which in all probability is significantly more than Stewart would have made over the next six years if he’d been drafted.   By the time the contract expires, Stewart will be 25 and eligible to be a major league free agent.   http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26797380/pitcher-skips-mlb-draft-japan-deal

[Chavez Ravine]

I wonder why this gambit hasn’t been tried before? It seems like teams in Japan have had the financial ability to compete monetarily  for top young US talent for a while? 

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Chavez Ravine said:

I wonder why this gambit hasn’t been tried before? It seems like teams in Japan have had the financial ability to compete monetarily  for top young US talent for a while? 

I can think of a number of reasons.

1. Players think of the NPB as a step down
2. Players unwilling/unable to deal with the cultural differences
3. Stagnant thinking
4. Limit on the number of foreign players allowed per NPB team (4)
5. Payroll is lower in Japan. 

 

[Chavez Ravine]

11 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I can think of a number of reasons.

1. Players think of the NPB as a step down
2. Players unwilling/unable to deal with the cultural differences
3. Stagnant thinking
4. Limit on the number of foreign players allowed per NPB team (4)
5. Payroll is lower in Japan. 

 

I agree with those. Another could be that there has been a mindset shift among the Japanese teams similar to the one that has dried up the ageing middle of the road free agent class here. It might now be more fun/interesting/valuable to have a 19 year old US kid be one of your four foreign players  than it is to have the current version of Randy Bass.  Suffice it to say I know next to nothing about the NPB. I did get a cool hat and a sunburn at a Yakult Swallows game once 

[Frobby]

4 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

I can think of a number of reasons.

1. Players think of the NPB as a step down
2. Players unwilling/unable to deal with the cultural differences
3. Stagnant thinking
4. Limit on the number of foreign players allowed per NPB team (4)
5. Payroll is lower in Japan. 

 

Moving to Japan is a pretty big move for an 18-19 year old kid.   But who knows, now that it’s been done we may see more of it.   

[ChrisP]

This could certainly start a trend, but more importantly, it might change the pay structure in the MiLB. 

[byrdz]

Interesting tactic by Boras. He'd probably be spending most of his first six years in the minors anyway. This way he makes more money while playing against better competition. Of course, this could back fire for the reasons already mentioned. There will definitely be a cultural shock. Japan was awesome when I visited but six years is a long time. Could get lonely!

[Just Regular]

Stewart looks like he now has four of the six Japan seasons in the books.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=stewar004car

He finally covered 100 innings in 2023.    I believe JPPL is the highest league and JPWL is AAA-ish; the 2023 results in the "minors" looks like they finally got "way too good for this level".

It was new to me checking on his page he come to North America last winter for a little extra work.

Carter Stewart and Grayson Rodriguez were both born November 1999, and I believe it is still in play that two years from now Grayson will have 2.129 years of major league service and may or may not be an Arb1, and Boras will be securing some kind of much bigger pile of money for this player.     They are both about 1.25 years younger than Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

I don't believe any of the biggest draftees from 2020-2023 have repeated this kind of move.

[AnythingO's]

I believe his contract has an opt out when he turns 25 in November of next year so he might be available then rather than after the 6th year. Could he be traded for before the contract finishes?

[Just Regular]

Couple of nuggets on Stewart's 2023 team. 

I went back to Sadaharu Oh reminding myself on one of the original Japanese greats, and was a little surprised to discovered now in his early 80's he remains a present chairman of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks according to Wikipedia.     I don't know if that means he's John Angelos, or has more of a ceremonial Nolan Ryan-Derek Jeter kind of gig in an ownership group.

Roberto Osuna was the team's closer.