By Rikko Nakashima, South Hiroshima Times
October 26, 2011

Just 10 days ago, the Xavier Salinas saga in Kure very likely came to a quiet end.  There’s no telling what the future will hold for the Arsenal or Mr. Salinas, and his tenure with the club will very likely be a small footnote in what can fairly be called the Deadball Era of Kure.

While their 93-loss season was a small improvement over last year’s 97-loss debacle, it was two losses more than the franchise’s “peak” season in 2009 when the Makurosu Hunters posted a 55-91 mark.

In what is likely his final game with the Arsenal, Salinas was 1-for-4 vs. the Neo-Tokyo Akira, and Kure won in a blowout by a 10-1 score.  After the game Salinas talked quietly with reporters as other members of the team busily cleaned out their lockers.  Some dropped by to say farewell to Salinas; others didn’t.

“I gave it my all,” Salinas said, as he emptied several empty bottles of prescription medicines into an old Naha Shisa shaving bag.  “I came to play every day.  I came to win.  We didn’t win.  What can I say?”

It seemed ironic that Salinas would still be carrying a Shisa shaving bag, for indeed, Salinas had been razor sharp with Naha during 2010.  A 40.1 VORP, 26 HRs and a .370 OPB, looked like just what the doctor might have prescribed for the Kure lineup, which has a franchise-long history of offensive futility.

But problems arose May 24 when Salinas turned his right ankle and went on the 14-day disabled list.  As would become a pattern with Salinas’s injuries, he would be out a week longer than the team expected.  In June, a cut on his elbow turned into a weeklong absence.  In July, back tightness led to another week of missed games.  In August, a back injury originally thought to be a one-week injury turned into three weeks.

“There’s not much to say…” said GM Aaron Tassano when asked to evaluate Salinas’s performance in 2011.  “We were disappointed of course.  When he played, he pretty much played like we’d hoped.  He had a solid July, and was fine in September.  It’s just the injuries seemed to pile up, and when he was injured, it took him a long time to get back.  What can you say?”

Salinas, whose salary was the highest on the Arsenal this season, is due for arbitration at the end of the LRS season.  When asked if the team would consider offering Salinas arbitration Tassano hedged, before saying, “Well, every player has value.  I mean, the Kure Arsenal organization has no hard feelings toward Mr. Salinas.  We have a number that we think is his value, and I’m sure he has a number that he believes is his value.  That’s what arbitration is all about.  However, the risk in arbitration is that when you enter it, somebody wins and somebody loses, and if you’re far apart, and you lose, you can lose very big.  So it becomes a risk/reward situation with presenting the case itself.  If a player wants, say, 6 million dollars, and the team believes his value is about, say $200,000, that’s such a gap that entering an arbitration hearing doesn’t really make sense.  For either party.”

When asked the same question at his locker he laughed.  “Arbitration?  Sure, I’ll go to arbitration!  Let’s go now; I’ll cancel my flight to Santo Domingo right now!  Let’s do it.”