U.S. 19-year-old talented pitcher: Carter Stewart gave up the major league draft and joined the Japanese professional baseball team's Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks with a six-year contract of at least $7 million. If he performs well, his bonus and rewards may be more than the signing fee. SoftBank has won four Japanese professional baseball championships in the past five years.
This choice will give him a higher income than he develops according to the professional baseball system, and he has the opportunity to develop in the MLB league as a free agent at the age of 25.
This unprecedented operation set a precedent for American baseball.
Stewart has a speed ball and a large curve ball with nearly 160 kilometers. Last year, the MLB draft was selected by the Atlanta Warriors in the first round. The original signing fee was US$4.98 million, but due to wrist health issues, the Warriors were only willing to provide US$2 million. He refused to sign, changed his agent, and raised his dissatisfaction. The two sides ultimately did not reach a consensus.
He would have been in the draft again next month. The outside world predicted that he would be selected in the second half of the first round or the second round, but his agent, Scott Boras, also the most famous agent in the baseball industry, convinced him to join the Japanese professional baseball team. Now he is bringing his talent to a country far from home.
The reason for his joining is that the players in the middle and late stages of the first round of the major league draft have a signing fee of about 1.5 million US dollars. They entered the American professional baseball system at the age of 19 and had to spend about 3 years in the minor leagues. In the first three years after they were promoted to the major leagues, they had to receive an ultra-low basic salary contract of about 500,000 US dollars.
In other words, you can earn about 4 million US dollars in these six years. If you only consider money, the Japanese team can sign in for a contract worth $7 million for 6 years, and if you leave results in Japan, you will have the opportunity to sign with the major leagues in 6 years.
The second reason is that you believe in the ability of Japanese vocational students to cultivate pitchers. The famous agent Boras once saw the example of Yuse Kikuchi. He gave up challenging the major leagues from high school. After scoring at the Japanese professional baseball team, he successfully joined the Seattle Mariners for 56 million in four years and is now the team's starting pitcher.
Moreover, the Japanese professional baseball team has achieved success in cultivating pitchers. The starting pitcher only takes the board once a week, which is relatively low in the chance of injury compared to the major leagues. Boras probably saw the merits of honing in Japan when he was young and made this decision.
Boras also said in an interview that Stewart's decision has a great impact on the bats: This allows young players to know another more economically beneficial option, because these talented young players are valuable, while today's professional baseball system has lowered their value.
The New York Times pointed out that after the Stewart incident, the MLB Major League Draft held on June 3, US time may have a potential rookie selected by the team, but because they are dissatisfied with the signing fee conditions, they choose to switch to the Japanese Professional Baseball League thousands of miles away. Will the choice of
Stewart be used as a springboard to enter the MLB major leagues in the next six years?
