710 ESPN Seattle's Shannon Drayer
Updated Oct 19, 2009 - 2:08 pm
Joh Leaves the Mariners, What Now For Both
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The Mariners were thrown a curve ball this weekend as Alan Nero the agent for Kenji Johjima informed Jack Zduriencik that his client was leaning heavily towards staying in Japan and playing close to home.
Today it was announced Johjima has opted out of the remaining two years left on his contract with the Mariners. According to Jack Z the opt out clause allowed for Joh to leave at anytime to return to play in Japan. There was no buyout.
There are reports out of Japan the Hanshin Tigers have targeted Kenji and are prepared to offer him a multiple year contract at 5 million dollars per year.
Zduriencik stressed that this was a decision based soley on Joh's decision to play closer to home. He said that at no time this year had Joh expressed such a desire or showed that he was disgruntled with his current situation.
The writing however, was clearly on the wall for Johjima. At best this season he split the starting duties with Rob Johnson. Seattle's top three pitchers made it clear that they preferred to throw to Johnson and Don Wakamatsu made it clear that he was going to go with the catcher that his starting pitchers had the best belief in.
Johjima handled this turn of events as I have written many times, stoically. He did not cause trouble or express that he was unsatisfied other than the times when he would tease me that I didn't need to talk to him, I should go talk to Rob. There was one time when he said this to me that he was clearly unhappy but he did not let this effect the rest of his team.
Joh's belief was that as the starting catcher he should catch every game he was physically able to. It was something he took pride in his first few years with the Mariners. Splitting catching duties must have been a bitter pill. The arrival of Adam Moore, regardless of how young he was no doubt was eye opening as well.
Some have suggested that the communication issue was too much between a pitcher and a Japanese catcher. I did not see this at all as Joh worked hard at his English and it was actually quite good. I think the bigger issue was a battle of wills. While Ichiro has been able to bring his game to the US and make it work with Joh it was a different matter.
I don't know that Joh necessarily called a game in the Japanese fashion but I do know that he had definite ideas about certain situations. It finally occurred to me at the end of the season that Joh often would say in post game interviews that he didn't call for a breaking ball because his pitcher could not get ahead in the count. What if that was one of the pitchers best pitches? The real eye opener was in the game Brandon Morrow threw right before he was sent down. Don Wakamatsu had said in his post game press conference that it looked like Morrow's breaking ball was shaky the few times he threw it. When we asked Morrow about it he looked at us stunned and said that he didn't throw a breaking ball that game. The plan with Rick Adair and Joh going into the game was to incorporate the breaking ball, it was what he was working on but Joh never called one. His explanation, he couldn't get Brandon into a count where he could throw it.
Regardless, the Mariners are out a catcher and with Rob Johnson coming off surgeries and Adam Moore green, Jack Z admits it changes the landscape going into the off season. As for Joh, I think things work out well for him. He clearly missed his family while he was here. Some of you have asked in the past about the ritual he had at the plate before he hit. Well that was a tribute to his kids who he did not get to see much during the season as they stayed mostly in Japan. I know this was hard on him. He also had told me on multiple occasions that his plan was to play his final years in Japan. He is quite popular there and with the possibility of the NPB soon losing one of their top draftees to the Major Leagues he could be seen as a hero coming home. This ultimately could be a win-win situation for both the Mariners and Joh.
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