The Yomiuri Giants announced Thursday the acquisition of free agent Yukinaga Maeda, signing the southpaw to a four-year contract worth an estimated 500 million yen with performance-tied incentives.
Maeda, who will be wearing uniform No. 29, said two days earlier that he had decided to jump to the Tokyo-based club after failing to reach an agreement with the Chunichi Dragons, where he spent the last six seasons of his 13-year professional career.
Swallows sign Ishikawa
Yakult Swallows on Thursday announced that they have reached an agreement with Masanori Ishikawa to join the Central League club after the Aoyama Gakuin University southpaw was their top pre-draft selection in this week's entry-level draft.
Ishikawa signed a one-year contract with the Japan Series champions, receiving a signing bonus of 100 million yen and a first-year salary of an estimated 13 million yen with performance incentives of up to 50 million yen.
"I look forward to the challenge of pitching to the Yomiuri Giants' (Hideki) Matsui and (Yoshinobu) Takahashi," added Ishikawa, who was a member of Japan's team at last year's Sydney Olympic Games.
May turns down contract
Fourth-year southpaw Darrell May has told theYomiuri Giants that he does not plan to renew his contract for next season, officials of the Central League club said Thursday.
May, who played for the Hanshin Tigers for two years before joining Yomiuri in 2000, recently sent a fax via his agent saying that he has decided not to re-sign with Japan's most popular team.