KND Report: Rays trade Iwamura to Pirates

November 4, 12:17 AMAsian-American Sports ExaminerMichael Street

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Iwamura will now be manning second base for the Pirates
(AP Photo/Jerry S. Mendoza)

The Pittsburgh Pirates announced today that they had traded reliver Jesse Chavez to the Tampa Bay Rays for Japanese second baseman Akinori Iwamura.

Most people expected the Tampa Bay Rays to try to trade Akinori Iwamura, but the Pirates were not the expected destination—the latest speculation had Los Angeles as a possible destination.

That would have made more sense for several reasons, since picking up Aki's $4.85M option was part of the deal and the Dodgers have a lot of money, as well as a history of signing Asian players.

Pittsburgh's move indicated an interesting new direction for the team, however, not only as a wiser investment in a proven winner, but also as a trailblazer for future Asian stars.

Though they don't have as much money to throw around as the Dodgers do, the Pirates are much wiser in signing Aki to the relatively cheap one-year deal than they were in trading for an aging (and expensive) Matt Morris in 2007.

Aki turns 31 just before next season and should provide a winning veteran presence to a young Pirates clubhouse–he won a Japan Series with the Yakult Swallows, two WBC championships with Team Japan, and reached the World Series with the Rays in 2008. That's more postseason experience than everyone on Pittsburgh's current roster combined.

Kattobase Nihonjin Daiirigaa!

Bringing him on board also indicates that they're serious about bringing in talent from the East.

In November 2008, Pittsburgh signed Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh, winners of the "Million Dollar Arm" reality show in India, for $20,000 total.

This year, they signed three valuable Taiwanese players in the space of a week, including Sheng-Chin Hung, one of the best pitching prospects to come out of Taiwan.

Just as signing Dice-K enabled Boston to sign Junichi Tazawa, having Iwamura in Pittsburgh should encourage other Asian players to sign with the club, and it should build their Asian fan base, too.

And it will give Asian-American sports fans a new team to follow in 2010. Congratulations to Aki for finding a new home, and we wish the best to Ichi-gun in the National League!