Kensuke Kondo, a representative of Japanese professional baseball, has won a huge ‘Jackpot’ contract of 4 billion yen (approximately 38.1 billion won).
Japan’s ‘Sports Hochi’ reported on the 12th (Korean time), “It is known 토토 that free agent Kensuke Kondo has decided to join the Softbank Hawks.”
Kondo began his professional career after being drafted by the Nippon Ham Fighters in the 2011 draft. Kondo began to receive opportunities in the first team little by little from his first season, and in 2014 he stood out by recording 4 homers and a batting average of 0.258 in 89 games. blossomed on Kondo played 11 years only at the Nippon Ham, winning the Best Nine 3 times (2018, 2020, 2021) and the On-base Percentage King 2 times (2019, 2020), participating in 1014 games, 1016 hits, 446 RBIs, 470 runs, batting average 0.307 OPS 0.847 left a huge mark. In particular, his pioneering eye is very good, and his career on-base percentage is 0.434.
His performance in international competitions is also dazzling. Starting with the 2017 Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC), Kondo participated as the Japanese national team at the 2019 WBSC Premier 12 and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning titles in each.
Kondo, who obtained FA qualification this season, received love calls from five Pacific League clubs, including Softbank, ‘parent’ Nippon Ham, Orix Buffaloes, Seibu Lions, and Chiba Lotte Marines. Kondo, who said, “I will make a decision before the end of the year,” decided to sign a contract with Softbank, rejecting the courtship of numerous clubs.
According to multiple local media outlets such as 토토 ‘Sports Hochi’, the contract for the condo is six years, and the minimum guaranteed amount seems to be over 3.5 billion yen. In addition, if compensation for the original club is included, the total contract size is over 4 billion yen over 6 years. Through FA, Kondo was literally sitting on a ‘money cushion’.