In order to activate the transfer of players who are not blessed with the opportunity to participate in professional baseball, the first "Active Draft" was introduced, and Rui Okoye, who joined Rakuten in the first place in the draft, transferred to the Giants in his seventh year. became.
"Active Draft" is a system that was introduced for the first time to give new opportunities to active players by activating the transfer of players who do not have the opportunity to participate, and other teams nominate active players listed by each team. This will allow you to transfer.
The "Active Draft" was privately held online from 1:00 pm on the 9th.
Every team has a system in which one person always goes out and one person enters, and this time, 12 people in total, one person from each team, were nominated, and after the end, NPB = Nippon Professional Baseball announced the players to transfer.
Of these, Rakuten's Okoye (25) will be transferred to the giants.
Okoye is an outfielder who joined Rakuten in 1st place in the draft from Kanto Daiichi High School in 2016.
With his high physical ability, he was expected to play an active role in running, offense and defense.
He played in 51 games in his first year, but after that he didn't have a chance to play, and in his fifth year, he didn't play in the first army for the first time after becoming a professional.
He was also injured, limiting him to 42 appearances last season and six this season.
His 7-year professional record is 236 appearances, batting average of 20%, 1 minute, 9 minutes, 9 home runs, and 44 RBIs.
In addition, pitcher Kotaro Ohtake, who has won 10 wins in five years with Softbank, will transfer to Hanshin, and 31-year-old Hanshin infielder Naomasa Hikawa will transfer to Seibu.
List of transferred players
[ORIX] Daiki Watanabe (Yakult)
[Softbank] Yuri Furukawa (Rakuten)
[Seibu] Naomasa Yokawa (Hanshin)
[Rakuten] Yuya Masazaka (Hiroshima)
[Lotte] Seiichiro Oshita (Orix, inside)
[Nippon Ham] Koki Matsuoka (Seibu, throw)
[Yakult] Sho Narita (Lotte, throw)
[DeNA] Shotaro Kasahara (Chunichi, throw)
[Hanshin] Kotaro Otake (Softbank, throw)
[Giant ]
] Rui Okoe (Rakuten, outside)
[Hiroshima] Chiaki Tone (Giant, throwing)
[Chunichi] Seiya Hosokawa (DeNA, outside)
The second round was not held.
(Position announced by NPB = Nippon Professional Baseball)
active draft rules
Each club will list two or more players from its pending roster who are expected to sign contracts next season.
The listed players will be shown to other teams in advance through NPB = Nippon Professional Baseball Organization, and on the day, each team will tell the chairman of the active draft meeting which players they want to acquire based on the list.
By tallying it up, the team to which the player with the most nominations from other teams belongs can be nominated first.
Then, the team that has nominated a player has the right to appoint the next player, and in principle, this flow is repeated.
There is no bidding format as in the Rookie Draft, so draft players do not compete.
The second round will be played only by the desired team, and will proceed in the reverse order of the first round.
Every team always has one person out and one person in.
Foreign players, players with multi-year contracts, players with FA = free agent rights, players who have exercised the right in the past, and training players are not included in the list.
Also, players with an annual salary of 50 million yen or more are not eligible, but you can list only one player with an annual salary of 50 million yen or more and less than 100 million yen.
Flow until active draft implementation
The "Active Draft" was proposed by the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association in an attempt to revitalize the transfer of players who do not have the opportunity to play, and has been negotiating with NPB since 2018.
After repeated discussions between the players' association and the NPB, three years ago, in the first year of Reiwa, full-scale consideration for its introduction began.
Then, in January the year before, NPB presented a plan for each team to arbitrarily list eight players, and decided to introduce it during the year-end season with the players' association.
However, the event was postponed due to the postponement of the opening due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection.
After that, both sides discussed the rules again, and decided to hold the event for the first time in the off season this March.
And this rule that every team always has one person out and one person in has been fixed, and the first day of the 9th was reached.
The players' association, which wants to give players who have few opportunities to play an active role, says, ``I want to hold this year and discuss improvements while discussing.'' I'm here.
Seimei Suzuki, chairman of the NPB player relations committee, also commented, "If there are any improvements, we will improve them. We would like to move forward with the direction of increasing participation opportunities."
[Rakuten → Giant] Okoye "I will do my best to turn over a new leaf"
Through Rakuten, Okoye said, "Thank you very much to everyone involved in the Rakuten Eagles team who have supported me for the past seven years since I joined the team, and to all the Eagles fans who have always supported me warmly. I will start a fresh start next year with the Giants. I will do my best, so please continue to support me."
Rakuten Director Ishii "Sometimes abilities bloom in a new environment"
Rakuten's manager Kazuhisa Ishii responded to the interview and sent an ale about Rui Okoye, who will transfer to the giants, saying, "I think his abilities will bloom in the new environment. I want him to do his best at the transfer destination."
Regarding Yuya Shozui, who was acquired, he explained, ``He has punching power that other players don't have and is strong straight.
On the other hand, regarding the first active draft, "There is a possibility that changes will be born and bloom as players go to different environments, but it is necessary to scrutinize whether each team is drafting the players that they really need. There were some difficult parts, but after participating, I felt that it would be great if we could improve the degree of perfection of the active draft and become something wonderful.”