First baseman Jose Osuna has signed a three-year contract extension to remain with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Nippon Professional Baseball, according to Yahoo Japan. Osuna will receive $5.1MM, as per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter), with salaries of $1.4MM in 2022, $1.7MM in 2023, and $2MM in 2024. Another $900K is available in incentives.
Osuna, who turns 29 later this month, hit .258/.293/.401 with 13 home runs over 495 plate appearances for the Swallows in 2021, serving as the team’s primary first baseman and also getting a bit of playing time at third base. Osuna also picked up some key hits for the Swallows during their postseason run, as the Tokyo squad captured the Japan Series championship.
While his numbers were modest, the Swallows clearly felt good enough about Osuna’s performance to make this long-term commitment. The $5.1MM also represents much more security that Osuna would’ve found in a contract with a big league team this winter, as he would likely have had to settle for a minor league deal (and could’ve now been in limbo due to the lockout).
A longtime member of the Pirates organization, Osuna hit .241/.280/.430 with 24 home runs over 705 career plate appearances in the majors, all with Pittsburgh from 2017-20. Osuna received a solid chunk of playing time in part-time and platoon roles with the Bucs, though the club opted to designate him for assignment last offseason rather than pay him a projected $1.1MM arbitration salary.
From that same Yahoo Japan report, the Swallows are also in talks with outfielder Domingo Santana about another contract. In his first Japanese season, Santana was one of the Swallows’ top bats, hitting .290/.366/.511 with 19 home runs over 418 PA.
The author of a 30-homer season with the Brewers in 2017, Santana hit .255/.341/.446 with 77 home runs over parts of seven big league seasons from 2014-20 with Houston, Milwaukee, Seattle, and Cleveland. Santana’s subpar defense, however, made him a veritable bat-only player, so the Guardians declined their 2021 club option on his services following a mediocre 2020 campaign.
Congratulations to the Swallows for taking the Japan Series title.
Anyone know a good source for NPB condensed games in English?
tv.pacificleague.jp, but there is a charge to watch games, highlights, team info.
Somehow it seems baseball in other countries doesn’t stop because the two sides can’t agree. But maybe I’m wrong, I just don’t follow it.
they had a short strike in 2004 actually
Didn’t know, thanks.
Good for both of them!
Strange math or strange logic?. MLBTR reported yesterday that Casty was targeting 4 yr $70, but it too expensive for the Marlins who are looking at Schwarb at 3 yr $60 mil.
Casty is looking for a lot more than 4/70. Probably in the 5/120 range. I read in the other article that Schwarbs was projected by MLBTR to get 4/70. Perhaps you got those articles mixed up? It would explain a lot since you are commenting on an article not related to either of them.
No MLB news on the horizon so we’d better start talking about the KBO and the NPB again.
Maybe some LIDOM talk would be interesting as well.
What a dirty name for a headline
Pirates loved him as a person. Glad he’s doing well
I’ve tried not to say anything regarding the writers on this site in regards to Cleveland’s name change but seriously Santana did not play for the Guardians, the Guardians weren’t even a thing when Santana played there. If you all feel uncomfortable using the Indians name than just refer to them as Cleveland. The revisionist history is very off-putting when reading the articles. You can’t just scrub 106 years of history away just because
How does using their current name scrub away their history? It’s the same franchise in the same city. They were officially known as the Naps when Lajoie played there and it’s not like he’s no longer a part of their history once they changed their name.
Sounds like you’re just off-put because you personally don’t like the name change.
Can’t wait for the MLBTR Proud Boys to start calling me a commie!
The same way when talking about the Expos we don’t call them the Nationals. Or the Devil Rays will still get called that when talking about 2003. It is normal in sports to refer to the team as what they were called at the time.
I don’t care about the name change by the way. They can be whatever name they want and I’ll call them the Guardians going forward, but the Cleveland Indians played last year, the Cleveland Indians won the Pennant in 2016, and the Cleveland Indians declined Domingo Santana’s option. The Guardians did none of those things.
That’s not what I’m arguing. The Rays’ history before 2008 wasn’t scrubbed away when the name changed and neither is the Indians’ like this guy is saying.
Will only be remembered as the guy who f’d up Max Scherzers perfect game.
Wrong Jose
Lost another loan to Ditech!
I don’t mind the international news…. But I kinda wish trade rumors had it in its own section. And more of it