_*_*_ THE DANCE CARD _*_*_
A Blog of the Toyama Wind Dancers
Huge Decisions Await Wind Dancer Front Office
November 7, 2023: Yes, yes, we know Aurora A-schmor-a. Three-peat on repeat. Har. That's all yesterday's news, man. None of it matters now. After a rugged gut-punch of a playoff loss, the fans of the Toyama Wind Dancers want to hear only news about what the ball club is going to do to make things right. The answer here at the Dance Card is this: we’re not sure, but we figure it’s going to happen soon.
Here are some of the more interesting newsie bits floating around the team.
Sato Option Could Be Declined
As amazing as it is to type those words, they are true. Longtime fan favorite and honored center fielder
Sadatake Sato is due a team option for $9M next year, which is quite steep for the version of Sato they got in 2021 and 2022 but would be worth it for the version they got in 2023. The highly-awarded veteran of the Japanese Leagues had a resurgent season, hitting .307 and clubbing 19 homers in what was essentially a heightened 4th out fielders’s role. His 3.1 WAR was the best he’s tagged since the magical season of 2020, and had many coming to the park in his old Lupin jersey. He was healthy all year this time, which clearly makes a difference, and at 31, soon to be 32, it’s certainly possible that he still has some of the old magic left in him
“I love this place,” Sato said quietly as he sat on the locker room bench after the season was over. Every player on the team stopped by to shake his hand or touch him. They understood, you see? They understood that while his performance might just possibly have been good enough to make the front office want to possibly over-pay him that $9M for 2024 … except that … by doing so, that would expose the club to a $10M option that Sato would hold on the club for 2025.
It’s that complex, and that simple, folks. What do you do with an aging superstar who might have something left, or might not? And what do you do when your club is walking a financial tight-rope that’s clearly planned to get them someplace big in two seasons. Do you risk it?
In this dollars and yens world, we’re wondering if the Wind Dancers will let Sadatake Sato walk, and then try to sign him again for a more reasonable price … and we’re wondering if Sato would go for that.
Tenno Being Shopped, Could be Chopped
Word is that GM Ron Collins has put out an All Points Notice to the league that slugging first baseman
Hirotsugu Tenno is available and can be had for nearly nothing, whatever that means. All we can say for certain is that, like Sato, the legendary 2020 LRS Triple Crown winner had a very nice rebound season in 2023 as new manager Hirotada Suzuki deployed him primarily against RH pitching. Tenno responded with 21 homers (which led the team) and a .273/.363/.506 slash to go with 53 RBI. “He looked like the kid of old,” one bystander said.
We can also say that Tenno is owed $3.9M next season, which is a tidy little sum to you and me, but which is a pretty decent deal for a baseball team looking for a strong side platoon thumper. At issue seems to be the fact that Toyama wants to commit time to
Roberto Cisneros, who lost most of the year to an injury, but who has been a reliable hitter for a couple seasons now.
“It’s actually a bit hard to carry both of these guys around on our roster,” Collins said in an earlier interview. They are just too similar. Cisneros hits from the left side, which is Tenno’s strong suit. With Cisneros out most of last season, Manager Suzuki was often seen writing catcher
Yejiro Kojima’s name and outfielder
Clifford Green’s name into the 1B slot against LH pitching. Since both are still under team control through arbitration, one would guess that these two would reprise those roles in 2024.
If the team manages to clear Tenno, it helps them by removing that $3.9M from the 2024 budget, and perhaps loosens the purse strings a bit, so we can see the value of moving him. However, some fans are finding it hard to swallow as they replay images of Tenno’s glorious 2020.
Is All Okay at Short Stop and Center Field?
After years of pounding the pavement in search of a short stop and a center fielder, Collins seems to be actually happy with where the team is right now. “Sure, we’re always open for a blockbuster kind of a thing,” Collins said at a luncheon social yesterday. “But to be serious I think we have the shortstop and centerfielder of our foreseeable future in our organization now.
He’s referring to
Yujiro Endo and
Donald Allen.
Endo came up in the middle of the year, and hit about nothing. But his glove astounded everyone in sight. “We saw him play in the springtime,” said ace pitcher
Akira Watanabe, “and we couldn’t believe it. But he came up here again and it was like … wow.” Endo’s +3.3 ZR in 46 games (combined with his+18.1 in 101 AAA games) shows that he’s perhaps the best defensive shortstop in the league even now—and he hasn’t peaked. “I don’t care what he hits,” Watanabe said. “I want him behind me when I’m on the mound.”
The arrival of Endo frees veteran shortstop
Shiro Adachi up to be a utility back-up and a platoon partner to
Jose Escobido, a role that the team captain seems perfectly geared for and ready to take on. “I like second base,” Adachi said. “And I like watching Yujiro play. He takes your breath away.”
The news that the club is finally happy with 22 year-old Donald Allen in center field is good news, too. Allen was the club’s #1 pick a couple years back, and had been touted as being major league ready at the time. That was clearly not the case, though. A season and half in the minors seems to have done the trick, though. Allen is an outstanding, rangy defender in center field, and is envisioned as being a leadoff kind of hitter. “I can’t wait to put Jose (Escobido) and Allen in the same lineup,” Suzuki said.
Some are suggesting that Allen might platoon up with another young outfielder in 25-year-old
Noriyuki Matsui. Matsui was a second round draft pick in 2020, and has also made the team’s pitchers drool with his glove work. “Donald’s glove is All-Leather,” said Watanabe. “But Nori’s is better.” Matsui has struggle to hit, but he might work out as the right-hand complement to Allen’s left-handed bat, and we can envision him as a defensive replacement, too.
Paring those gloves in center with the All-Leather glove of young
Ivan Rosa (+12 ZR) in right, and the solid (+5.1 ZR) of 26-year-old
Okakura Ishikawa in left would make for a defensive outfield that might be among the best ever fielded.
The question that has to be asked, though, is whether the Wind Dancers feel like they are ready to chase a pennant with a pair of rookies manning the two most important defensive roles on the field.
Have We Seen The Last of Nishi?
34-year-old
Tsuyoshi Nishiyama (very soon to be 35) has been with the Wind Dancer organization his entire career. He took a 1-season deal at a 25% pay cut to stay with the team last year, and rumors are that he might be asked to do the same thing this coming season. Or not.
Nishi (7-11, 4.26) is still a solid pitcher who can bring five pitches to the mound, but he’s getting a little long in the tooth and the truth is that his fastball doesn’t really threaten a pane of glass anymore. All he does is get people out, though. And he’s versatile, having thrown both as a starter and out of the bullpen.
But the team’s farm system has now pretty much overwhelmed him. Ex-Rule 5 pick
Francois Gosselin (23) is now actually ready after a season in AAA. He’ll compete for the fifth starter role, or a bullpen assignment. Canadian
Eric Huot (also 23) appears to be ready to take a spot in the pen.
Carlos Gomez (25), signed from the Mexican League a season ago is also ready. Then will come the second wave led by
Ken Thompson and
John Gillard and
Tsuginori Yamamoto.
So, yeah … Nishiyama’s days are numbered here. But the fans are on the edge of their seats waiting to see if the old guy still has a trick or two up his sleeve.
That’s Not All, Folks!!!
There are more questions, of course. Questions like, “is
Shinobu Takeuchi better off in the pen?” and “Can the team handle Clifford Green’s total lack of defense again?” and “what do we do with the no-name bullpen of
Makino,
Miller, and
Morgan?” as they all wind their way to their pricey arbitration seasons.
But these are the questions that might have strange answers, and they are questions that won’t necessarily be answered right away. So we’ll leave them sit for now.