Is this kind of contract normal?

Nori wants a clause that says in two years in four years...

Did you mean to write in two years or in four years? Maybe something else? The above doesn't make sense.

Player options are pretty common in the Majors. For instance, Sammy Sosa signed a five-year extension with the Cubs in 2000, but he can opt out and become a free agent after 2003 or remain under contract through 2005.

I don't know if common is the word for it. I can only think of two: Sammy's and Alex Rodriguez's. Who else has that kind of contract?

Nowdays, profesional sports have a lot of new clauses in contracts that are never revealed to the public. For example, in the 1980's Atlanta Braves had clause in their contract for third basemen Bob Horner for Horner's body weight. The salary for Horner was big if he stayed thick. Sammy has a clause for escape if the Cubs aren't better after 2003. No major league shorstop can earn more money than A-Rod. If Oakland signed Miguel Tejada for 253 million dollars, the contract for A-Rod would go up to 254 million, etc, etc.

In the Dominican Winter League, the clubs pay cash money to the players in the playoffs for daily performance. One homerun costs about 1,500 pesos (near 100 dollars), one win 2,000 pesos, game winning RBI 1,000 pesos, etc, etc.

I don't know if common is the word for it.

I was including 1-year options in my "common" assessment. Off the top of my head, both Rob Nen and Brad Ausmus exercised 1-year options this off-season rather than become free agents.

> I don't know if common is the word for it.
>
> I was including 1-year options in my "common"
> assessment. Off the top of my head, both Rob Nen and
> Brad Ausmus exercised 1-year options this off-season
> rather than become free agents.

Ah, I see. Then, I agree; common, very common!

> Nori wants a clause that says in two years in four
> years...
>
> Did you mean to write in two years or in four
> years? Maybe something else? The above doesn't make
> sense.

Sorry. I failed to delete the "two" part. It was meant to be "in four years".

Anyway, it appears (according to the not-exactly-impartial SanSpo) that Hanshin is the team that Nori is leaning towards - at least in Japan, anyway. I'd love to see him join us, but to be honest, I don't really care, as long as he doesn't go to the Giants!

Mike Sweeney has that type of clause. Mutual options are very commonplace, with both the player and the team aggreeing on the pre-set contract for the following year(s). If the player agrees to stay but the team declines, they have to pay him a buyout.

- Mutual options are very commonplace, with both the player and the team aggreeing on the pre-set contract for the following year(s). If the player agrees to stay but the team declines, they have to pay him a buyout.

I see. That then begs the question: are these kinds of options common in NPB? I have never heard of them here, and the story in SanSpo I mentioned at the top of this thread didn't use a particular term to describe the situation, they had to esplain the whole thing "long-hand."

However, with more and more Japanese players expected to go to MLB - or at least who want to do so - I wonder if this kind of thing will become more common (assuming it isn't already). I wonder if the press will start using the term "opushon" to refer to it.

I read in the Daily Yomiuri that Nori is going to (or already has) turn the Giants down. They wanted a Yes or No from him by the end of this month, but he said he wanted more time as he hoped to hear from some major league clubs.

I hope he ends up with the Tigers. It would make the Central more competitive.

- I hope he ends up with the Tigers. It would make the Central more competitive.

Quite apart from my bias as a Hanshin fan, I totally agree with you. The Tigers' early 2002 form, and thereby the general competitiveness of the Ce League in those early days (except for poor old Yokohama), was perhaps the main factor that brought huge crowds to Ce League games this season.

There were great expectation in early 2002 when Hoshino-kantoku joined us. Now, we've already got Kanemoto, imagine if we got Nori, too! We'd be able to compete much better than in the past few years (on paper, anyway).

I really hope we get 'em, and that Yakult survives OK without Petagiant.

Does anyone have information on how the contracts in Japan work? For example, is there salary arbitration? Who is in the better position, the team or the player? Is there a player union, and if yes, how strong is it?

Thanks

There is arbitration, however, the commisioner and the presidents of the league are on the committee that decide, therefore, the decisions are always for the teams. The players want a players' union and some talks have happend, but it will take some time.