Over the years, Hanshin has been known as a big spending baseball club. This is true to an extent, with the team consistently ranking in the top half of the salary rankings. It looks like this coming season, the team will rank #3, well behind the top two clubs, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and Yomiuri Giants.
You will notice that…
* There are three MLB players (Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, David Price) who will earn more this coming season than the entire 66-player roster of the Tigers.
* If the team salaries chart is accurate, there are *47* MLB players earning more than the entire Chunichi Dragons team will take in.
* The SoftBank Hawks payroll, while tops in the NPB, is lower than that of the Tampa Bay Rays, the stingiest team in the MLB.
* Players who move to the MLB stand to make several times the amount that they would in Japan.
How does this break down by player, you may be asking yourself? Well, here’s a look at the players’ salaries from the past 3 seasons. Notice that players who have left the team have also left the chart altogether, making it hard to compare the team’s aggregate payroll from year to year.
| Player | # | Position | 2017 Salary | 2016 Salary | 2015 Salary | Change (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yoshio Itoi | 7 | OF | 450.0 | --- | --- | |
| Takashi Toritani | 1 | SS | 400.0 | 400.0 | 400.0 | 0.0% |
| Randy Messenger | 54 | SP | 350.0 | 300.0 | 250.0 | 16.7% |
| Kosuke Fukudome | 8 | RF | 230.0 | 200.0 | 150.0 | 15.0% |
| Kyuji Fujikawa | 22 | RP | 200.0 | 200.0 | --- | 0.0% |
| Shintaro Fujinami | 19 | SP | 160.0 | 170.0 | 85.0 | -5.9% |
| Atsushi Nohmi | 14 | SP | 130.0 | 140.0 | 140.0 | -7.1% |
| Marcos Mateo | 38 | RP | 110.0 | 75.0 | --- | 46.7% |
| Tsuyoshi Nishioka | 5 | 2B | 90.0 | 108.0 | 180.0 | -16.7% |
| Yuya Andoh | 16 | RP | 88.0 | 82.0 | 85.0 | 7.3% |
| Roman Mendez | 20 | RP | 75.0 | --- | --- | |
| Eric Campbell | 29 | 3B | 70.0 | --- | --- | |
| Minoru Iwata | 21 | SP | 53.0 | 68.0 | 60.0 | -22.1% |
| Yamato | 0 | 2B | 50.0 | 53.0 | 65.0 | -5.7% |
| Rafael Dolis | 98 | RP | 50.0 | 50.0 | --- | 0.0% |
| Akifumi Takahashi | 41 | RP | 50.0 | 50.0 | 30.0 | 0.0% |
| Yuta Iwasada | 17 | SP | 40.0 | 16.0 | 16.5 | 150.0% |
| Shun Takayama | 9 | OF | 40.0 | 15.0 | --- | 166.7% |
| Ryota Imanari | 49 | 3B | 38.0 | 40.0 | 36.0 | -5.0% |
| Hiroki Uemoto | 00 | 2B | 33.0 | 36.0 | 40.0 | -8.3% |
| Daiki Enokida | 13 | RP | 32.0 | 32.0 | 36.0 | 0.0% |
| Keisuke Kanoh | 99 | OF | 28.0 | 23.0 | 9.0 | 21.7% |
| Kazuya Takamiya | 34 | RP | 26.0 | 30.0 | 15.0 | -13.3% |
| Suguru Iwazaki | 67 | SP | 25.0 | 20.0 | 15.0 | 25.0% |
| Shunsuke | 68 | OF | 24.0 | 27.0 | 25.0 | -11.1% |
| Fumihito Haraguchi | 94 | C/1B | 22.0 | 4.8 | 4.0 | 358.3% |
| Fumiya Hojoh | 2 | SS | 22.0 | 7.3 | 7.3 | 201.4% |
| Ryota Arai | 32 | 3B | 21.0 | 30.0 | 30.0 | -30.0% |
| Taiga Egoshi | 25 | OF | 17.0 | 16.0 | 10.0 | 6.3% |
| Yuya Yokoyama | 15 | SP | 15.7 | 15.0 | 15.0 | 4.7% |
| Hiroaki Saiuchi | 26 | RP | 15.0 | 16.0 | 11.0 | -6.3% |
| Yusuke Ohyama | 3 | 3B | 15.0 | --- | --- | |
| Hayata Itoh | 51 | OF | 15.0 | 17.0 | 15.0 | -11.8% |
| Ryoma Matsuda | 56 | RP | 14.0 | 12.0 | 10.4 | 16.7% |
| Ryutaro Umeno | 44 | C | 13.5 | 15.0 | 18.0 | -10.0% |
| Taichi Okazaki | 57 | C | 13.0 | 8.5 | 9.0 | 52.9% |
| Tsuyoshi Ishizaki | 30 | RP | 13.0 | 11.8 | 12.0 | 10.2% |
| Seishiro Sakamoto | 12 | C | 13.0 | 12.0 | --- | 8.3% |
| Koyo Aoyagi | 50 | P | 12.0 | 7.2 | --- | 66.7% |
| Taiki Ono | 28 | SP | 12.0 | --- | --- | |
| Masahiro Nakatani | 60 | OF | 12.0 | 7.0 | 5.8 | 71.4% |
| Takumi Akiyama | 46 | SP | 11.0 | 10.0 | 10.0 | 10.0% |
| Hiroya Shimamoto | 69 | RP | 11.0 | 7.2 | 4.2 | 52.8% |
| Shinji Komiyama | 59 | C | 10.5 | 12.0 | 12.8 | -12.5% |
| Fumiya Araki | 58 | IF | 10.0 | 8.0 | 7.0 | 25.0% |
| Akihiro Yanase | 66 | RP | 10.0 | --- | --- | |
| Yutaro Itayama | 63 | OF | 9.0 | 7.2 | --- | 25.0% |
| Naomasa Yohkawa | 55 | 3B | 9.0 | 8.0 | 8.4 | 12.5% |
| Shoya Yamamoto | 47 | RP | 9.0 | 6.0 | 5.4 | 50.0% |
| Shintaro Yokota | 24 | OF | 8.7 | 7.2 | 7.2 | 20.8% |
| Daichi Takeyasu | 42 | P | 8.4 | 8.4 | --- | 0.0% |
| Koki Moriya | 43 | SP | 8.0 | 8.0 | 8.4 | 0.0% |
| Ryosuke Ogata | 65 | OF | 8.0 | 8.0 | 9.5 | 0.0% |
| Kento Itohara | 33 | IF | 8.0 | --- | --- | |
| Kentaro Kuwahara | 64 | RP | 8.0 | 9.0 | 10.0 | -11.1% |
| Kenya Nagasaka | 39 | C | 7.2 | --- | --- | |
| Kosuke Fujitani | 45 | SP | 7.0 | --- | --- | |
| Shungo Fukunaga | 40 | SP | 6.8 | --- | --- | |
| Yuto Morikoshi | 37 | IF | 6.5 | 6.0 | 6.0 | 8.3% |
| Shinya Azuhata | 52 | C | 6.5 | 7.0 | 7.7 | -7.1% |
| Kazuo Itoh | 92 | RP | 6.0 | 5.5 | 6.0 | 9.1% |
| Hiroto Saiki | 35 | SP | 6.0 | --- | --- | |
| Kenjiro Tanabo | 97 | RP | 5.3 | 4.8 | 4.8 | 10.4% |
| Naoto Nishida | 133 | IF | 5.0 | 5.8 | 6.0 | -13.8% |
| Kai Ueda | 62 | SS | 5.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 0.0% |
| Masumi Hamachi | 36 | SP | 5.0 | --- | --- | |
| Atsushi Mochizuki | 60 | SP | 5.0 | 5.0 | --- | 0.0% |
| Total Payroll | 3,287.1 |
You will notice that…
* The biggest salary gain (in terms of percentage) went to Fumihito Haraguchi, who was a development player until the end of April, and was paid accordingly. Until he had his huge breakout season.
* Other big increases went to Fumiya Hojoh, Yuta Iwasada and Shun Takayama. None of these comes as a big surprise.
* The biggest loser (you can take that to mean what you want it to mean) is Ryota Arai. WBC bench warmer pitcher Shintaro Fujinami also took a decent-sized pay cut.
* Ten players’ salaries will remain the same this season, while 27 players earned raises and 18 guys got pay cuts. [Until players become free agents, they are really at the team’s mercy when it comes to their pay. Their salaries are determined based on a somewhat complicated formula which tallies up their stats from the previous season, their years of experience (or age, in the case of the really young guys) and the previous season’s salary. There is a limit as to the percentage of pay cut a player can suffer (I believe it’s 40%, but I could be wrong), but no limit to his pay increase. However, the rule of thumb is a moderate (5-15%) raise every season.]
* Yoshio Itoi immediately became the team’s richest player, which I suppose takes some pressure off of Takashi Toritani.