Many people were expecting Tokyo Yakult Swallows Yamada Tetsuto to jump to the MLB during free agency, but the talented/popular infielder decided to not exercise his right to play in the MLB and stay in the NPB.
On November 18th, Yamada informed the team that he will stay with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows where he has been playing since 2011 and is expected to get a super large contract of 3.5 billion yen for 7 years.
If Yamada declared free agency, there was a possibility other teams would try to acquire Yamada. In 2015, he won the homerun hitting king and stealing king titles. While this season, he suffered poor upper body physical condition and only had 12 home runs but Yamada has won “Stealing King” three times, has the highest on-based percentage and was the stolen base leader for 2015, 2016 and 2018, has 5 Best Nine Awards for 2014-2016, 2018-2019 and was an NPB All-Star for 2014-2016 and 2018-2019.
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