For the first time in the history of professional baseball's Central League, Hanshin's pitcher Yoshiki Murakami, who was selected as the MVP = Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year at the same time, renewed his contract for the next season with an annual salary of 857 million yen, which is an estimated 6000% of the highest in the history of the baseball team, and an increase of 6700 million yen.
Murakami had only pitched in two games for the first team until last season, but he grabbed the opening day of the season in his third season.
In his first start of the season against the Giants on April 1, he stole the spotlight with a perfect pitching performance that didn't allow a single runner until the seventh inning.
After that, he kept the starting rotation ▽ appeared in 2 games, ▽ 3 wins and 1 losses ▽ 4.12 ERA, won the title of best ERA for the first time, and contributed greatly to the league championship and the first time in Japan in 7 years.
He became the first player in Central League history to be named MVP and Rookie of the Year at the same time.
Pitcher Murakami negotiated a contract at the team's office in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, and renewed his contract for next season with an annual salary of 1 million yen, an estimated 22% or 10 million yen increase, which is the highest in the club's history.
Pitcher Murakami reflected on the press conference, saying, "It's been a fulfilling year, and I'm most happy that I was able to win the title of best ERA, which was my goal."
Looking ahead to next season, he said, "I still have a lot of work to do, so I want to keep my style going and try to win the title of best defensive percentage for the second year in a row."