Daejeon had a free contract with Nippon Ham
On the 14th, DeNA announced the acquisition of outfielder Taishi Ota, who had a free contract with Nippon-Ham as a “non-tender FA”. For Daejeon, Kanagawa, where he spent the Tokai University Sagami High School, will be celebrating his 14th year as a professional. For the team, it was a big reinforcement to raise the level of the outfielders and to be a smasher on the right.
DeNA’s outfielders were almost fixed at 141 games for captain Sano on the left, 122 games for center fielder Kuwahara, and 100 games for Austin on the right. Other than that, Kusumoto started in 17 games, Sekine in 17 games, and Kamari in 14 games in the middle wing, but the difference with the regular team was big.
Daejeon has only started in 5 games in the middle class and 38 games in the right wing this season, but he is a talented person who has participated in more than 100 games for 4 consecutive years from 2017 to 2020. Along with the revitalization of competition, it seems to be a great force to raise the level of the outfielders.
Also, the team lacks the right pinch hitter. Looking at the results of this season’s pinch hitters, Kusumoto’s batting average of .295 (44 at bats, 13 hits) is the top. There were Yamashita (.235), Kuramoto (.231), Sekine (.231) and others, but Hosokawa struggled with .115 (26 at bats, 3 hits) as a right-handed batter. Nakai, who was showing the strength of the game, also retired this season. The pinch hitter on the right was thin.
Daejeon is now 31 years old. Among the many young DeNAs, he suddenly becomes the oldest outfielder. Even in the fielder, he is the eldest after Yamato, Miyazaki, and Hikaru Itoh. It seems that it will be a mission to join the giant in the first place in the draft in 2008 and pass on the abundant experience after transferring to Nippon-Ham to juniors.
(Full-Count editorial department)
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