December 15, 2006
The Other Japanese Star
Lost in all the hoopla over Matsuzaka, the Devil Rays reached a deal with Akinori Iwamura to play third base. It's only for three years, but he'll earn close to what Matsuzaka's getting on a yearly basis. Rays Index surmises that someone needs to be traded and speculates on who it might be.
The other question that comes up is how well will Iwamura hit in the majors. For his career, he's posted .366 OBA and a .519 slugging percentage, but his last three years were much better than that. High OBA players tend to take a hit in that category when they come to the US. Ichiro and both Matsuis saw a drop in OBA. With Suzuki and Hideki, their OBAs were so high that it didn't matter; they were still very productive players. But it really killed Kaz Matsui's value. Two players with lower career OBAs, Iguchi and Taguchi, saw very slight drops in their OBAs. Maybe because the others were seen as more of a threat, they were walked more in Japan, and that didn't happen in the US. Iwamura's stats are more like Kaz Matsui's. The Devil Rays hope that the same thing doesn't happen to his offense. He'll have a much better park to hit in than Kaz did, however.
Given the huge gap between their posting fees, I'm a little surprised that both Matsuzaka and Iwamura ended up signing for similar amounts. Why does the guy whose negotiating rights cost $51M get a contract worse than that of Gil Meche, while the guy whose negotiating rights cost $4.5M get one better than that of any free-agent infielder except Aramis Ramirez? Doesn't make much sense to me.
Just guessing, but probably because of the gap in posting fees and also because Iwamura gets to be a FA in 3 years; the Rays are expected to include the clause that exempts him from arbitration.
Iwamura will make $1.8 million in 2007, $2.4 million in 2008 and $3.25 million in 2009. The Rays have a $4.25 million option for the 2010 season. I hope it works out for them.
If this was an organization run better than Tampa Bay I'd call this a steal. Iwamura will likely end up having a much better career than Matsuzaka.