This Pitchers Contract With The Japanese Pacific League Could Change Baseball Forever
The Atlanta Braves top draft pick from 2018 just signed a six-year deal worth over $7 million with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Japanese Pacific League (JPL), and here’s what this groundbreaking deal means for the future of baseball.
Currently nineteen years old, pitching phenom Carter Stewart dominated at the high school level of baseball while pitching for Eau Gallie High School located in Floriada. As a junior in 2017, he would go 11–2 with a stellar 0.81 ERA and 104 strikeouts. During the summer of 2017, Stewart would participate in the Perfect Game All-American Classic at Petco Park. The next year during the 2018 baseball season, Carter would go 6–2 while posting an ERA of 0.91 to go along with 128 strikeouts. Carter Stewart would go on to be named the Gatorade Baseball Player of The Year for the state of Florida after his dominant 2018 season with Eau Gallie High.
In the 2018 MLB Draft, Stewart would be drafted with the eighth overall pick by the Atlanta Braves, however, due to a wrist injury, Stewart was offered a signing bonus below the full value of the draft slot. As a result, Stewart chose not to sign with Atlanta. Instead, Stewart enrolled at Eastern Florida State College or (EFSC) for the 2018–2019 academic year so that he would be eligible to be selected in the 2019 MLB Draft. After a strong baseball season with EFSC, Stewart was projected to go in the 2nd round this upcoming 2019 MLB Draft, however, Stewart just signed a six-year deal likely to be completed by the end of the month with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks from the Japanese Pacific League.
This contract is only a six-year deal, but this contracts effects on the professional ranks of baseball may very well last much longer than a half-dozen years.
First of all, unlike the NBA and NFL where you get a bunch of money right of the bat when you sign with a team, you have to work your up to big contracts over years, and for most, it takes years in the minors under very low salaries before a player makes it to the majors, and even than, a player has to wait until they’ve played in six full seasons in the MLB before they go into free agency and rake in the big cash. Now, Carter Stewart has proved there’s a way to get big cash right of the bat without going through the slow process of working you way up to the majors. That way is signing a contract with a Japanese Pacific League team.
Stewart was able to get a big contract right of the bat in Japan, and theoretically, at age 25, when his deal with the SoftBank Hawks has ended, he could sign a big contract with a major league team and go straight into the MLB without having to spend years in the minors. In the long-run, assuming he signs his way into the MLB eventually and isn’t slowed down with major injuries, Stewart will make a lot more money than if he took the usual route and played through the minors and slowly made his way up into the big leagues and then to a big contract.
Stewart’s deal with the Hawks will encourage many other athletes in his situation to take a similar path of signing a contract with the JPL. If lots of baseball stars like Stewart choose two sign straight into big contracts with Japan, than a few major changes will take place in the MLB.
The first major thing that will happen to the MLB as a result of young amateur stars signing straight into Japan is that the minor league talent pool will have less talent. With a lot of guys that could potentially show a lot of skill and talent signing into Japan, there will definitely be less talent for teams to refer to there will be more guys that yo wouldn’t expect to be pro baseball players that will have a shot to go pro with a decrease in amateur athletes interesting in signing with a minor league team out of college and high school.
Another effect of amateurs signing with Japan will be that the MLB will end up having to pay more money to get the best of the best. With players going into Japan and theoretically signing big contracts straight into the big leagues, the MLB has to pay more money to get good players. Usually, a baseball player is drafted and takes a long journey through the Minor League ranks before making it to the big stage, but even then, once in the bigs, a player has to wait six seasons before they can be signed as a free agent and potentially rake in the big bucks.
Carter Stewart’s deal with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks will forever change professional baseball may be for only six years, but it’s effects could last forever.
