Two Japanese teams are willing to acquire Kenshin Kawakami and take on more than half of the $6.67MM remaining on his contract, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The Braves wouldn’t get a player in exchange for Kawakami if they send him to Japan.
The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Yomiuri Giants and Nippon Ham Fighters were linked to Kawakami earlier in the offseason and Braves GM Frank Wren acknowledged that he had "a number of discussions" about the right-hander's future.
The 35-year-old lost his rotation spot last year and even spent some time in the minor leagues. His ERA rose from 3.86 to 5.15, though he posted similar strikeout (6.1 K/9) and walk (3.3 BB/9) ratios to the ones he had in his 2009 rookie season.
Rosenthal suggests that the Yankees, who recently heard that Andy Pettitte will retire, could consider Kawakami.
I would trade him for 2 bats and a bag of peanuts at this point.
I love comments like this because it helps separate the people who actually pay attention to baseball from those that don’t.
-C
The hatred Braves fans have of Kawakami is just weird. He’s not an elite starter, but he’s not paid like one either. He’s a perfectly capable back-of-the-rotation arm. He may be slightly overpriced, but if Atlanta eats a couple million I don’t see why some team wouldn’t add him.
I’m a Braves fan and assume there’s some behind the scenes reason the guy fell from favor. I like him and think he’ll excel if given the chance to be what he is: a decent 5 or 6 inning pitcher.
I’ve heard there were some disciplinary/attitude issues with him. He wasn’t responding well to suggestions by Bobby and Roger McDowell on how to adjust to American hitters and find more consistency.
Yanks already have Kei Igawa in the minors; why would they want/need Kawakami?
Because Kawakami has actually had some sustained MLB competency?
Because Kawakami is better?
Buy US war bonds…
Right right, just because they’re both Japanese, they must be the same. Brilliant!
The Yankees should do more than consider him; they should trade for him right now.
Signed, The rest of the AL East
At the rate the Yanks’ rotation options keep spiralling downward, I’m thinking by the time spring training starts, I have a real shot.
I should probably practice my curve.
you call that a curve?
I think that’s a bit of a sour deal — paying +$3MM for a roster spot and not getting a player back in exchange.
It’s outdated that in 2011 there isn’t any kind of loan program between the leagues other than buying and blind-auctions.
He’s a solid player and I for one don’t hate him. I feel for the guy honestly. He’s a very decent back of the rotation starter and locked in at a decent price, it just so happens that he’s playing on a team that has plenty of 5th starters all at very low cost (Minor, Beachy, Lopez). He will make some team pretty happy and eat a decent number of innings per start.
I wish him the best wherever he goes, and I also hope he goes somewhere that he can contribute and prove his value.
Yeah, but if KK doesn’t want to go back to Japan, he can stop the trade. He wants to stay in the MLB (apparently). Feel like this has been the same problem for the past few months. What’s changed?
The only thing that’s changed is that Kenshin may be pitching in AA if he does not agree to return to Japan. (To be sure, the Yankees may give him/the Braves another option, but still …)
THANK YOU!!! I agree with everything you just stated…. (I meant this towards 14 Rocks, but for some reason it was posted at the end of the page, sorry about that!)
Mr. Kawakami caught a bad break, but the Braves really do have absolutely no need for him now, especially after signing Rodrigo Lopez. I hope an MLB team jumps in and offers to take on more salary because I think he deserves an MLB job, but if not……good luck in Japan, Kenshin.
And Wren needs to give up on wanting a player back in return wherever he’s sent. It’s not gonna happen…..just take the salary relief.
i hope he goes to the Yankees
🙂
If the Yankees get him it would be just too much for me! Its already been a hilarious offseason for them and this would be the cherry that goes on top, haha
in 2009 kk pitched a perfect game through 5 innings… jus thought that was interesting
He did pitch a perfect game on MLB 2K10.
Wren should hold onto Kawakami. No reason to give him away for salary relief, as there isn’t really anyone left to spend that money on. I don’t feel sorry for Kawakami. I would gladly suck twice as bad for half as much money.
you can’t look at it that way. if wren gets 3 million back on a trade for kawakami, the braves would have some wiggle room to pick up a player to fill a weakness later in the season (if a weakness exists).
There’s just no sane reason to hold onto him when you’ve got this:
Hanson
Hudson
Lowe
Jurrjens
Minor
Teheran
Delgado
Beachy
Vizcaino
Lopez
Redmond
Medlen(assuming he returns on schedule)
Now, Kawakami is probably a better option than Lopez, Redmond, and maybe Beachy. But you see what I’m getting at here, he’s not even needed for insurance purposes….
Brandon Beachy has more potential. It’s pretty clear that we’ve seen all that Kawakami can deliver. A move to the AL might be a decent move since the hitters in that league haven’t seen him as much as the NL hitters have. Might get away with using him for a season as a #4 or #5 with a 4.00+ ERA.
Are you serious!?
I thought he was traded to the pirates like 2 months ago…
I guess that didn’t work out…
You know he threw a perfect game last year right? …It was in MLB 2k10, but still, helped some guy win a million dollars. Google it!
The fact that Braves fans hate KK with such a passion is just.. I don’t get it I guess. As it’s been repeated over and over, the guy wasn’t bad for what he was considered; a #5 starter on a team that wasn’t in dire need of pitching. KK’s problem wasn’t that he didn’t get *some* run support. He got almost NO run support. If I remember the stat right.. didn’t he actually get some of the last urn support besides King Felix? If he would have gotten half of the run support that Lowe got, he would have had at least a few more runs.
Anyway, obviously things aren’t fixable now and it’s best if the Braves trade him off. I’d be pretty irked if I had to deal with what Kawakami’s had to deal with. They’ve been respectable, sure, but he’s got a lot of undeserved hate heading his way. I feel bad for the guy. Anyway, it’s the Braves fault for overpaying him anyway.
I hope the guy gets a spot on a roster this coming year and is able to actually get some runs, though. Good luck, Kawakami!
Kawakami is an interesting pitcher. He is old enough and experienced enough to hold his own but he doesn’t quite have the stuff to maintain himself on the Braves roster. Just as people have said, he often will pitch okay then leave a ball up which is hammered. I think it’s simply the lack of “stuff” that keeps him from being a better pitcher. A better pitcher with better stuff like Tommy Hanson could get away with leaving one up now and then. No pitcher has perfect pin point control, but what the great pitchers have is the ability to keep batters guessing and the hard throwing great pitchers can buzz a bad pitch past a batter now and then and get away with it.
So Kawakami in a way pitches like a guy who is much older who is at the tail end of his career. A guy who looks like he know what he is doing but gets hit anyway.
the more i look at this move, the bette i like it…so many options…
the more i look at this move, the better i like it…so many options/so little money