Pitcher Kendai Ishida, who remained in the professional baseball DeNA after exercising his FA = free agent rights limited to Japan, renewed his four-year contract with an annual salary of 3800 million yen, an estimated increase of 1 million yen, for a total of 4 million yen, and said, "I want to win the championship in the DeNA uniform."
The 9-year-old pitcher, who started 23 games in his ninth season and posted a 4-9 record and a 3.97 ERA, exercised his FA rights at the end of the season, but decided to stay with the team after DeNA asked him to stay.
Negotiations were held at the baseball team's office in Yokohama on the 30th, and both contracts were renewed with an estimated annual salary of 20 million yen, an increase of 3800 million yen, for a total of 1 million yen.
Pitcher Ishida explained the reason for his decision to stay, saying, "I wanted to know how I was evaluated in this world, and I received some grateful words from other clubs, but when I thought about which uniform I wanted to win, I had a strong feeling that I wanted to win the championship in the DeNA uniform and that I had to win the championship."
He added, "I think there's no reason why a team like this can't win a championship because the players get along well with each other, sometimes it's tough, and I want to be a pitcher who can support the team and make people think that I'm okay if I pitch in terms of performance and attitude. I want to do what I can to give back."