'This year's annual salary alone is 1.9 billion won' Hanshin ace's surprise ML challenge'"It's not about money"
Nov 05, 2024
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Local media, including Japan 'Daily Sports', reported on the 5th that Hanshin's right-hander side-arm pitcher Aoyagi will challenge Major League posting. In an interview with `Daily Sports,' Aoyagi said "Posting is a club's right, but he allowed it. I can only say thank you so much because you believed in me."
Aoyagi is a 1993 pitcher from Kawagana Prefecture who joined the team after being drafted by Hanshin, the fifth-ranked player in the 2015 rookie draft. And he has been the ace of Hanshin all the time. In 2021 and 2022, he stood tall as the league's best pitcher with 13 wins and a 2-point ERA for two consecutive seasons.
However, the last two years were disappointing. Last year, he was sluggish in 18 regular-season appearances with 8-6 losses and an ERA of 4.57, and he took the mound as the starting pitcher in Game 7 of the Japanese Series and played a role in leading the team to the championship with four scoreless innings in four ⅔.
As the slump continued this season, he pitched in 12 games and recorded a poor performance with 2 wins, 3 losses and an ERA of 3.69. Aoyagi's annual salary this year is 210 million yen, about 1.9 billion won, but he declared a major league challenge.
He said "Participating in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 was an opportunity for me to have a dream of going abroad. I wanted to continue to experience other baseballs""If I had just thought of money, I would have stayed in Japan." What remains in Japan is the way to make money. But more than that, I want to make sure that I can try without regret as a baseball player. It's the best if I can sign a major contract, but I'm not particularly sticking to it," he said, expressing his intention to accept minor contracts.
youll@sportschosun.com
