Thet Yakult Swallows have announced that the Brewers won the negotiating rights to Japanese outfielder Norichika Aoki, reports Yasuko Yanagita of Hochi Shimbun (on Twitter). We heard that Yakult accepted the $2.5MM bid yesterday.

Aoki, 30 in January, is a three-time Central League batting champion and posted a career line of .336/.411/.472 in his first seven seasons in Japan. His numbers fell to 292/.358/.360 in 2011, which explains the modest size of the posting fee. NPB Tracker's Patrick Newman (writing for Fangraphs) said in August 2010 that Aoki was "the best pure hitter Japan has produced since Ichiro" and has good defensive range, though a weak throwing arm will probably limit Aoki to left field in the majors.

The Brewers seem to have plenty of outfield depth with Ryan Braun, Corey Hart, Nyjer Morgan, and Corey Hart, but there's a chance they could lose Braun for the first 50 games of the season after his failed drug test. GM Doug Melvin recently said he is proceeding with his offseason under the assumption that Braun will be in the lineup all season, however. As a left-handed hitter, Aoki could serve as a bat off the bench or give the team depth to make a trade.



Source: MLB Trade Rumors

Passan said whoever gets Aoki at 2.5 got a steal, and he was battling through some injuries last year. He has more BB's than SO's in his career as well.

Thoughts?

No idea where he fits in if Braun wins his appeal. 2.5 mil for a 4/5th outfielder seems like quite a lot.

It's 2.5 mil just to negotiate with him. Cost more to sign him to a contract. I am really wondering if Hart could be shopped. Hart for a pitcher and then a pitcher for Rizzo?

C: Lucroy
1B: Rizzo
2B: Weeks
3B: A-Ram
SS: Gonzalez
LF: Braun
CF: Morgan/Gomez
RF: Aoki

This guy was said to be the best hitting prospect since Ichrio to get posted. He had injuries last year, hence why his #'s were down. BB's more than he SO's and has good defense.

Aoki just makes sense for us, especially if Braun is out for 50.

Plus we struck the iron at the right time for him as his last year in Japan isn't really indicative of his whole career as he was supposedly battling injuries.

Very curious to see what Aoki projects as. Could be anywhere from 4th/5th outfielder type to top 10 starting CF type.

If it's the latter we are really going to be glad to have him if Braun is out for 50, Morgan will see a lot of action in LF. If someone Braun is not suspended and even when he comes back, we may have an interesting situation on our hands with Aoki or Morgan possibly being bait.

It sounded like they really lowballed him from the JS blog. It could just be DM playing this perfect in the media and he really wants out of Japan.

2-year deal done. Terms will be posted soon.

Yep sounds like 2 years with a club option for 2014. Perfect. Well assuming the terms are team-friendly of course.

It's so hard to know how Aoki's numbers will translate from Japan to MLB, but IF he is as good as advertised, there are so many potential options once Braun is back this year.

- Morgan, Aoki, and even Hart could be potential chips at the deadline, depending on what our needs are at the time.

- If Gamel is bombing at 1st and Aoki is excelling, it wouldn't be completely unreasonable to suggest making Hart the every day starter at 1st and going with a full-time outfield of Braun, Gomez/Plush, and Aoki.

No, just heard it can't possibly be. The Brewers are DONE adding payroll and actually came out and said that they were going to take away money from their draft budget in order to add to their big league payroll, recall.....

UWbrewball wrote:

Brewers manager Ron Roenicke was told players have nicknamed Aoki "Ninja." He said, "We've got to do better than that."

https://twitter.com/#!/Haudricourt/stat ... 5081730048

Norichika -EY

Craigy
Bruany
Princy.

Ninjaey

Aokiey

UWbrewball wrote:

Brewers manager Ron Roenicke was told players have nicknamed Aoki "Ninja." He said, "We've got to do better than that."

https://twitter.com/#!/Haudricourt/stat ... 5081730048

Braun gave him that name

Aoki Dokie