Kelvin Herrera signs two-year deal with Royals to avoid arbitration

By Aaron GleemanFeb 12, 2015, 4:22 PM EST
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Right-hander Kelvin Herrera has agreed to a two-year, $4.15 million contract with the Royals, avoiding arbitration for this season and next season.

As a “Super Two” qualifier Herrera has four total seasons of arbitration eligibility, so he’ll still be under team control for 2017 and 2018 once the two-year deal is over.

Herrera has emerged as one of the elite relievers in baseball since 2012, throwing 213 innings with a 2.45 ERA while ranking among MLB’s hardest-throwers. Last season he had a 1.41 ERA and 59/26 K/BB ratio in 70 innings while allowing zero home runs in 285 plate appearances.

Japanese Baseball to begin June 19

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By Craig CalcaterraMay 25, 2020, 10:31 AM EDT
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Japanese League commissioner Atsushi Saito announced that Japan’s professional baseball season will open on June 19. Teams can being practice games on June 2. There will be no fans. Indeed, the league has not yet even begun to seriously discuss a plan for fans to begin attending games, though that may happen eventually.

The season will begin three months after its originally scheduled opening day of March 20. It will be 120 games long. Teams in each six-team league — the Central League and Pacific League — will play 24 games against each league opponent. There will be no interleague play and no all-star game.

The announcement came in the wake of a national state of emergency being lifted for both Tokyo and the island of Hokkaido. The rest of the country emerged from the state of emergency earlier this month. This will allow the Japanese leagues to follow leagues in South Korea and Taiwan which have been playing for several weeks.

In the United States, Major League Baseball is hoping to resume spring training in mid June before launching a shortened regular season in early July. That plan is contingent on the league and the players’ union coming to an agreement on both financial arrangements and safety protocols for a 2020 season. Negotiations on both are ongoing. Major League Baseball will, reportedly, make a formal proposal about player compensation tomorrow.