Last year the Barves drafted a young pitcher named Carter Stewart. He was their first rounder and he wound up not signing after the two parties couldn't agree to a deal. Instead of being drafted again this year, he took a different route.
Right-hander Carter Stewart, the No. 8 pick in last year's draft who did not sign with the Atlanta Braves, is in agreement with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks on a six-year deal worth more than $7 million, sources tell ESPN. Stewart, 19, will start in the minor leagues in Japan.— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 22, 2019
He reportedly went to Japan. I've yet to see any official confirmation from SoftBank and Japanese media, but as of now I trust Ken Rosenthal and Jeff Passan's word.
I've been clamoring/hoping for the day when Japan poaches American talent away from the MLB forever and that the fact that it happened brings me joy. MLB has shown it does not give a fuck about poaching from Japan (see: Junichi Tazawa, Kaito Yuki, among others), and in my opinion NPB's response shouldn't be to ban their scouts. No, it should be to just return the favor and poach American talent. Contrary to what people might think, it's not like the NPB teams are poor. SoftBank and Yomiuri in particular print money and are fronted by the richest entities in Japan who want to win. No, the AAV on the deals they give out do not even touch what the biggest deals in the MLB go for (though the gap is starting to close as MLB teams get cheaper and cheaper). But it sure exceeds whatever players get in the minors, which is below minimum wage for the record. Reminder, your favorite prospects are earning less on average per year than the person who takes your order at McDonalds.
In Stewart's case he got $7+ million guaranteed right off the bat. That's more than any puny signing bonus and what he would've gotten in six years in the minors.
I'm kind of skeptical that he's going to spend all six of those years in Fukuoka though. I can see him spend some time in the ikusei ranks and nigun-ranks, maybe even an ichigun appearance, but I see him getting posted on the posting system at some point when he deems he wants to return stateside. If/when that happens he'll then have the choice of pitching which MLB franchise to go to. If a deal doesn't work out, he's still got that six year, $7+ million deal to fall back on. That gives Stewart a lot of leverage that no other draft prospect has. Not even MLBers have that amount of leverage. As a pro-labor/pro-player guy, I love it.
Whether this works or not for him, the way I see it is MLB is losing on talent because of the shitty draft & minor league system.— Eric Sim (@esim3400) May 22, 2019
Also this is a very accurate assessment of how he would be paid in US if he played in Milb and that’s taking the fast track too.
Japan 1, America 0 https://t.co/qy8H7T7ZRm
This is only one case and I'm not sure if other players will follow his example, but I'd like to see MLB finally sweat after facing competition. MLB's done everything to take power away from the players like lobbying to congress to pass that shitty "Save America's Pastime Act" in order to save (labor) costs for owners who can just make profits by standing around and not doing anything. I know that it almost never happens in the real world, but if there was ever a time where I hoped someone's greed and hubris led to their downfall, it'd be right now (though I wouldn't just limit that to MLB).
Unfortunately that won't happen because the world is unfair. But hey, we finally have a high profile draft prospect who went to Japan. It's only a matter of time until even someone like Adley Rutschman goes to Japan first. No better talent to take away from MLB than the projected first overall pick.
So good luck to Carter Stewart. Dude's got balls to go all the way to Japan as a 19 year old. I hope he sticks around long enough to get an official NPB card made of him. I'd buy it.
Also, my beloved Chunichi Dragons had better be working on pooling money to sign both Adley Rutschman and Bobby Witt Jr. right now. Do it Dragons. Make me proud.
As always thank you for stopping by and eat the rich.
Also take care.
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