Nippon-Ham Fighters Acquired Negotiating Rights to Wang Po-Jung

Wang Po-Jung to the Nippon-Ham Fighters?

The Lamigo Monkeys announced the NPB’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters have emerged as the winner of the 王柏融 (Wang Po-Jung) sweepstakes.

With the Monkeys accepted the posting fee from the Nippon-Ham Fighters, the Fighters now will have the next 30 days to negotiate a contract with Wang Po-Jung.

According to a Japanese article on November 14, they believe Wang Po-Jung’s posting fee should be around 100 million yen (roughly $890,000 USD). The Monkeys, however, did not disclose that information from the press release today.

“We will announce the posting fee once Wang Po-Jung has agreed to terms with the Fighters,” said the Monkeys’ general manager Justin Liu. “Apart from the Fighters, there are many other overseas teams that were interested in Wang Po-Jung.”

Posting Wang Po-Jung: Timeline

  • October 17: The Monkeys announced the team is going to post outfielder Wang Po-Jung in the offseason right after the 2018 Taiwan Series.
  • November 4: Started the posting process, with the goal of wrapping everything up by the end of the year.
  • November 20: The Lamigo Monkeys accepted the posting fee from the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. The Fighters have won the negotiation rights to Wang Po-Jung for the next 30 days.

Foreshadowing: Fighters-Wang Po-Jung

Below is the personalised thank you card from the Fighters’ organisation to Wang Po-Jung from March 2018. The Monkeys was invited by the Fighters to played a 2-game exhibition series. Wang went 2-for-7 in that friendship series against the Fighters.

9 COMMENTS

  1. I saw a post on yakyudb.com on November 13th stating that there had been no bids on Wang as of that date, so I’m glad to see an NPB team was willing to submit a bid that Lamigo was willing to accept.

    So if the Nippon Ham Fighters made a 100 million yen ($890,000) posting bid, do you think that Wang will get a two-year 100 million yen offer? That sounds about right to me if Wang made around $210K to $220K in 2018. Maybe three years and 120 million to 140 million yen?

    • I have been doing some research on that too, I’ll put together something in the next few days. Here’s a quick gist of it.

      Since the Fighters paid posting fee for Wang Po-Jung, the fighters definitely going to lock Wang into multi-year contract in my opinion. I am banking on around $600K-$800K USD (70m to 90m yen) at least in the first year.

      I based this on other “well established NPB foreign players” their first NPB salary. (foreign players now that earned around 200 million to 500 million yen).

      Alfredo Despaigne – 70 million initial, now 400 million yen.
      Wladimir Balentien – 65 million initial, now 330 million yen.
      Brandon Laird – 60 million yen initial, now 300 million yen.
      Stefen Romero – 96 million initial, now 290 million yen.
      Jose Lopez – 80 million initial, now 230 million yen.
      Zelous Wheeler – 50 million initial, now 200 million yen.
      Carlos Peguero – 25 million initial, now 200 million yen.

      But of course from Wang’s agent point of view, more the merrier, I read Wang will have two agency representing him when dealing with NPB organisation. So, the kids will get double dipped by his agents?

      There is also another few scenarios:

      #1 – I hope we don’t see it happening. But the worst case scenario would be Wang took a massive pay cut in the first year to offset the posting fee. So, earning around $200 to $400K in the first year.

      #2 – The possibility of the Fighters lock Wang down for 4-5 years and re-sell/ post him to the MLB after 2-3 years if there’s an opportunity. Win/ win situation for all parties, Wang gets to play in the MLB earning big bucks, Fighters get their nice cut of posting fee. From the MLB perspective, signing players from the NPB definitely safer than signing straight from CPBL, as Wang would get that 2-3 seasons of NPB seasoning.

      This is unrelated, just a fun CPBL to NPB contract that I found doing my research.

      In 2002, the Seibu Lions signed 21-year-old RHP 張誌家 (Chang Chih-Chia) for 120 million yen signing bonus, (unknown posting fee to CPBL team) and locked him in for 9 years with the guarantee that his salary will not fall under 20 million yen. http://npb.jp/bis/players/63165115.html

      • If the Nippon Ham Fighters made a posting bid of 100 million yen, I would expect that the contract commitment to Wang will be in the 100 million to 150 million yen range, over either two or three seasons. The Fighters aren’t going to want to commit any more in case Wang is not a success in NPB.

        I don’t know that Wang can be compared to foreign players coming from Cuba’s Serie Nacional or the MLB system, because it isn’t yet known whether Wang will be starting in NPB’s major league at the start of the 2019 season, or will need some time to develop at NPB’s minor league level. NPB teams sign 5th through 8th foreign players expected to start the season at the minor league level for a lot less than the 4-A and marginal MLB major league players who get big initial NPB contracts and are expected to be immediate NPB stars.

        The more I think about it, a three-year 150 million yen ($1.3 million) deal makes the most sense to me in terms of the reported posting fee, what Wang would likely make in CPBL over those three years and that fact that if Wang is a star in the CPBL, he would then be set up for a 1 billion to 2 billion yen four year deal from an NPB club between his age 27 and 28 seasons or a possibility of trying to move up to the MLB majors.

        • True, Wang’s biggest disadvantage is coming from the CPBL, an unproven league. He ends up signing for around $400,000 to $600,000 a year is very likely too. Today there’s a Japanese article by Sponichi Annex projecting Wang batting #3 as DH in the 2019 lineup. Haha, the hype train is starting.

          I guess this will depend on his agency’s negotiation skill. Hopefully we can find out his salary soon. If Wang does well, this can very well change the Taiwanese baseball scene.

          On Fighters-CPBL related news. (This is a fun rumour)

          There’s rumour that originally the Fighters were thinking going the back-door method by sending Ohtani to the CPBL (Fubon Guardians) and use them as a middle man to sell Ohtani’s contract to the MLB. But the MLB amended the rule and Ohtani was able to get posted.

          In late 2017, Guardians mentioned they have something in the work with the Fighters. Also prior to Ohtani’s posting, Guardians reps were spotted at Ohtani’s final game.

          When digging further into this, Fubon Financial is one of the investor to Ohtani’s CAA agency.

          • What I would consider as comps is what NPB players got when they moved to MLB. Diasuke Matsuzaka received a $52 million guarantee after a $51.111 million posting bid, and Yu Darvish received a $60 million guarantee after a $51.7 million posting bid.

            What that says to me is that in an absolutely free market on both the posting bid and final contract, the player will get slightly more than the posting bid. Back in the 19th Century, Deacon White said essentially that he was willing to let someone sell his “carcass”” only if he got at least half.

        • I don’t think that there’s any real doubt that the Nippon Ham Fighter think that Wang could be an NPB star. That’s why they reportedly bid 100 million yen for his rights. NPB teams know that NPB stars can come out of Taiwan because plenty have in the past. Nippon Ham has probably scouted Wang more than any other NPB team, and they like what they’ve seen.

          Nippon Ham is now a middle market NPB team, which can compete if they make the right decisions. They struck gold with Daikan Yoh (Dai-Kang Yang), and they are looking for the next Taiwanese star at the right price.

          • Another article surfaced recently restating it might be a 500 million yen package (including posting fee). But it did not mentioned the contract duration though. I guess we just have to wait and see what’s the final figures. Also supposedly no MLB teams bid on Wang due to no official posting agreement between the CPBL and the MLB.

  2. In an unrelated note, former CPBL Ace Orlando Roman won his first Puerto Rican Winter League start on November 16th, allowing one earned run in five innings pitched on three hits and three walks while striking out five. Roman turns 40 on November 28th. Pretty impressive he still has something left.

    • I think Roman still got another 1-2 years left in him. Maybe someone should sign him as a mid-season fireman.

      One of my contributors Chris, who has been covering CPBL alumni in the Latin America winter ball on our Facebook page. One of these days, I probably need to start translate his stuff into English and post on this blog.

      There are 8 former CPBL foreign players in Venezuela, Ricardo Gomez, David Martinez, Ryan Kelly, Jose Castillo and Dave Kubiak are all doing well. (I won’t list everyone)

      Jonathan Albaladejo who I think was on Guardians’ target list a few years back and Williams Perez (I think you mentioned him before) are also on our radar.

      Dominican Republic we have, Elih Villanueva, Cesar Valdez, Warner Madrigal and Evan MacLane. Hector Noesi of the KBO is also there too I believe. You mentioned Tyler Alexander and Josh Lowey in the past too.

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