10:57pm: Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times reports (on Twitter) that the incentives kick in at 20 starts, at which point Iwakuma will be paid a $200K bonus. He will make $250K for 22 starts, $300K for 25 starts, and $400K for 30 starts. The innings bonuses kick in at 140 IP, and he can earn another $400K for 200 IP.
Iwakuma spent four days in Seattle back in December according to Baker, during which time he met GM Jack Zduriencik and was shown around town. He didn't speak to Ichiro Suzuki before signing, says Baker (on Twitter).
7:35pm: The Mariners have agreed to sign right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma to a one-year contract worth $1.5MM, reports ESPN's Jerry Crasnick (all Twitter links). The deal includes $3.4MM in incentives based on starts and innings pitched. We heard the two sides were closing in on a deal earlier this week. Iwakuma is a Sosnick-Cobbe client.
The Rakuten Golden Eagles posted the 30-year-old righty a year ago and the A's won the rights to negotiate with him for $19.1MM. However, the sides didn't work out a deal and Iwakuma re-signed with Rakuten. He posted a 2.42 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 1.4 BB/9 in 119 innings in 2011 and became a true free agent after the season. He figures to join Felix Hernandez, Jason Vargas, and Michael Pineda in Seattle's rotation with Blake Beavan and Charlie Furbush as candidates for the fifth spot.
Great deal for the M’s. No major risk there.
Yay! Good signing. Can always turn him into prospects mid-season, if he succeeds.
This is implausibly fantastic. What an amazing contract, great structure, potentially a massive value and certainly cheaper than I expected!
Everything about this is great for the Mariners, although I want to know what these incentives are that can more than quadruple the value of the contract o.o
Most likely standard stuff, just with more incentive. IP incentives, etc.
They have to be IP and awards incentives. Nothing else is allowed, IIRC.
Double reply fail.
I liked Furbush a lot better when he was preceded by Fister in the rotation.
You know that was never right? They were traded for each other.
Stifle it, you.
Great signing. Will be interesting to see how he can do. I figured he would get more than that, for sure.
Hateyoudisqus.
1 yr/$1.5m??? What did the A’s offer last year?
He wanted something ridiculous like $16 million a year I think. I guess that didn’t work out so well for him.
I think he was offered something like 4.5MM in guaranteed money for three years. What the hell happened during contract negotiations last year for him to turn down that offer for this???
Maybe he heard bad things about Oakland’s three fans.
3 years at $3.5 to $3.8 million per year. I wonder how long he waits to fire his agent.
He had Don Nomura as an agent when he negotiated with the A’s. He already fired him before this year.
Iwakuma’s agent wanted basically the same contract that Hiroki Kuroda had (that was what Iwakuma’s agent was using as a model). So they were looking for 4 years/$48 million.
I think the A’s were trying to offer 3 years at $3.5 to $4.5 million per year.
Nobody really could tell what Don Nomura (Iwakuma’s agent) wanted– hence all the talk about Barry Zito-esque contracts Nomura floated. And then the Kuroda contract was used as a model. The A’s offer was somewhere in the range you suggested, IIRC.
No, he used Barry Zito as a comprable, not Kuroda. He literally wanted $100M+ for him.
Damn he must feel like a fool now turing down the A’s contract last year of 4/28 because his agent said he was being under payed. Where is that M’s fan that said the A’s low balled him last year? Looks like the M’s didn’t just low balled him but made him grovel and beg for the job. So now all you M’s fans can zip it when talking a bout low balling someone.
didn’t this guy ask oakland for the barry zito contract last year? i see japan’s scott boras is a bit less successful
Iwakuma fired that agent last year…
Little Risk and high reward!
He simply just didn’t want to play for As. He said in an interview, he picked Ms because it is the closest city to Japan.
1.5M is lower than what he could get in Japan.
I’m assuming ichiro had something to do with it to
Ichiro has something to do with Kawasaki.
Kawasaki said he only wants to be on the Ms because of Ichiro.
No matter what the salary is, so Ms signed him a minor league contract. XD~
Good try. He fired his agent after it came out that his agent wanted Zito money. It was a big disgrace for his former club that he asked for that much money. He said he wanted to play for the A’s and his agent lied to him. His agent went in the papers saying the a’s only offered a little over 6 million a year and it wasn’t fair. I bet that amount looks good now. He never said he didn’t want to play for the A’s.
Of course he would not say “he doesn’t want to play for the As”.
Actually, he took less money again this time because Seattle’s location.
“1.5M is lower than what he could get in Japan.”
Good catch. I checked and he was paid $3.6 million last season in Japan. I’m not sure how much the injury would change his salary.
He should be successful pitching in a pitcher friendly ballpark.
Amazing deal for the M’s.
Awesome deal. No risk high reward. If he succeeds give him a long term deal maybe something close to what the A’s offered last year.
Iwamura signs for 1.5 million to pitch in Seattle. Texas will probably have to pay 15M per year for Darvish. The real question is which pitcher has a better season?
Darvish
Shoulder injuries are scary stuff and have destroyed lots of MLB careers; far fewer recover from shoulder injuries than from TJS.
There’s a reason the M’s got Iwakuma at such a low price after the posting bidding last year was pushing 20MM. You HAVE to think something’s up with that shoulder.
Thank you Mariners!
You’re welcome?
I didn’t want him on the A’s
Because…
because of his age an we are trying to go young and he has injury history like last year
baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=iwakum…
Before his shoulder injury in the first part of the 2011 season, where exactly was his injury history? He threw 571.2 innings during the 08-2010 seasons.
I thought he was going to say because he’s money-hungry greedy player who tried to ruin the reputation of the A’s. That would have sounded more reasonable.
I guess all the A’s fans (Whoever’s left of them) are getting into “trade every one and give up this year.”
ya thats the way we’ve been this whole offseason,
The Angels getting the best hitter alive and adding a #3 SP who is a #1 on many teams, as well as the Rangers being in a peak era right now will do that to ya.
I doubt he would have signed here anyways. He would have looked like an even bigger idiot for signing with the A’s on a 1 year $2M deal or something like that.
This is great deal for us. Steadies up the rotation and on such a cheap deal.
Finally, the M’s actually make an interesting move. Jaso was…kind of interesting. But Iwakuma has a chance to be a big impact guy. I’m hoping he puts up something like 180 innings of 3.7 or less xFIP ball, earns some of those incentives and the M’s sign him to an extension for a few years. The M’s might hope to repeat the 2010 Giants’ model in a year or two with a mediocre offense and amazing run prevention.
I am guessing he posts ERA 3.8-4.0 range in Safeco.
Seattle would more than happy to use a pitcher like that for 1.5M.
I liked the idea of adding Iwakuma from the start. Given the financial details, I would consider this a big win for the M’s. There has been some concern about his shoulder, but I’ve also read that his injury was towards the beginning of the 2011 season and that he had a strong finish. A 1.5M base salary with 3.4M in total possible incentives for a possible middle of the rotation starter is great! He has a career 2.67ERA in Japan, and threw 201 innings as recently as 2010. I look forward to seeing him in Mariner teal.
Looks like smart move. Have to think signing for such low amount has to be a favor for Ichiro to have couple country men join him on his final year of his contract and possibly career.
I can’t imagine he posts anything worse than a 3.7 in Safeco and really solidifies this rotation.
The west coast seems to be very attractive to japanese players. Mariners need to start focusing on some hitters. I certainly do love Dustin Ackley’s skills and future in that lineup but they really could use a good fielder, perhaps a prince would work. If Iwakuma pans out as a starter I wonder if they would consider moving King Felix or Queen Pineda for a thunder stick?!
Queen Pineda? I think you mean Taters.
MLB teams always need good starting pitching. And for the price of this contract, sounds like a good move.
But how about picking up a little offense? We have been a horrible offensive team for way to long now. Yea some young guys showed some pop. Carp and Ackley really stood out, but neither is an anchor.
All the Mariners have are complimentary pieces for offense. If this were a Thanksgiving day meal, we’d have all the fixings without the turkey.
MLB teams always need good starting pitching. And for the price of this contract, sounds like a good move.
But how about picking up a little offense? We have been a horrible offensive team for way to long now. Yea some young guys showed some pop. Carp and Ackley really stood out, but neither is an anchor.
All the Mariners have are complimentary pieces for offense. If this were a Thanksgiving day meal, we’d have all the fixings without the turkey.
They should just let Paxton take the #5 spot next year. Felix/Pineda/Vargas/Iwakuma/Paxton? Potential for a top-5 rotation or am I crazy?
With that said I guess it goes without saying-fantastic move. To make things better he was offered something like 4x the amount of money he’s getting by the Athletics last year before things fell apart and in an interview basically said he doesn’t give a crap about money he doesn’t need. These Mariners are gonna be fun to watch, now go get Prince!
Hultzen probably starts in the 5 hole before Paxton. Paxton should be up by the deadline after Vargo gets traded.
Don’t forget about Beavan. Perfect youngster for the back of the rotation. Already has the look of an innings-eater, while still having remaining potential.
Ok, so one of you smart guys need to tell me what his AAV is for 2012 for luxury tax purposes (even though the Mariners will not approach the tax limit), given all of these incentives. Please cite relevant rules, i.e., which are assumed to be paid, which are not taken into account. To me, this looks like a nightmare to deal with if the Yanks or Sox were to issue such a contract.
Anybody want to tell me what the alternatives are to prince for a freakin offensive overhaul?
Trade Felix , Pineda and hope to get some goodies back?
A fusion of Seth Smith/Will Venable and time. Also maybe hopefully Carlos Pena
Good pick up, but I’m going to ask again… how about some offense?
Announcing the signing of Jack Cust in 3…2….1…
i think you could do more than “hope” for some goodies back if u traded one of them lol
I wonder if they’ll let him pitch Game 2 against the Athletics in Japan, after Felix of course.
James Paxton w/ either Blake Beavan or Tajuan Kelly, Michael Saunders, Justin Smoak, Chone Figgins, and Shawn Kelley to Baltimore Orioles for JJ Hardy, Chris Davis, Tommy Hunter, and Chris Schoop would make sense but also sending Figgins to Colorado for Seth Smith going the O’s so they can seriously go after Prince Fielder to help the M’s compete this season and beyond. Jack Z. and Dan Duquette need to look as the trade valuable for both teams. Manny Ramirez or Vladimir Guerrero would make sense as a DH in Seattle.
I see a few things wrong with this. 1- Do you mean Taijuan Walker and Jonathan Schoop? 2- You consider Blake beavan equal to Taijuan Walker? 3- That’s a terrible trade for the Mariners. The Mariners have Nick Franklin coming up who has a pretty good shot at sticking at short. Chris Davis < Justin Smoak. Tommy Hunter is fat and terrible. The Mariners have Francisco Martinez/Alex Liddi/Kyle Seager/Vinnie Catricala as third base options.
this is how you get it done if you’re the M’s. absolutely no risk, and they might get some good years out of this guy.