The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters have reportedly signed Franmil Reyes to a four-year contract extension covering the 2027-30 seasons, according to Mike Rodriguez of Rompiendo Sports. Reyes will become the highest-paid player in NPB history, as the deal is worth up to $40MM. Reyes is represented by Shaun Inouye of Athlete Solution USA Inc. and Edwin Dominguez-Alvarez of DTO Sports (Dominguez wrote about the extension on his X feed.)
It’s an eye-popping payday for a player whose MLB career seemed to be fading away by the end of the 2023 season, before he signed the first of three consecutive one-year deals with the Fighters. Reyes’ struggles in the majors are now a distant memory in the wake of his success in Japan, and the four-year pact indicates that Reyes is comfortable committing himself to NPB for the rest of the decade and maybe the rest of his playing career.
Reyes has hit .294/.357/.549 with 89 home runs over 1430 plate appearances during the 2024-26 Nippon Professional Baseball seasons. The Fighters had posted five consecutive losing seasons before Reyes came aboard, and the slugger has since carried the club to three straight strips to the Climax Series final stage (NPB’s version of the League Championship Series).
Huge production notwithstanding, it is hard to imagine Reyes would’ve landed anything near $40MM or a $10MM average annual value if he had pursued a return to the majors this winter. Reyes is 31 years old and has been mostly a DH over his three years with the Fighters, with a handful of games at first base. Even DH-only players who have posted big numbers in MLB action have had trouble landing such lengthy contracts when entering the open market, and front offices might have felt Reyes’ improvement at the plate wouldn’t have carried over against big league pitchers.
Reyes hit .260/.325/.503 with 92 homers over 1540 PA for San Diego and Cleveland from 2018-21, translating to a 120 wRC+. It seemed like Reyes was emerging as a serious power threat even if questions persisted about his ability to generate consistent contact, but Reyes’ production suddenly cratered. He batted only .217/.268/.356 with 16 homers in 538 MLB plate appearances in 2022-23 with the Guardians, Cubs, and Royals, and the 29.5% strikeout rate over his first four seasons ballooned to 33.6% in his last two years in the Show.
In the bigger picture, the Fighters’ deal with Reyes is a milestone for both NPB as a whole and the concept of foreign players finding second careers out of Major League Baseball. With enough on-field success and a willingness to stay put, however, Reyes’ deal is evidence that players can cash in big while playing in NPB. It’s an interesting factor to consider during an offseason where more free agents than usual could be considering playing abroad to avoid the uncertainty of the lockout, though NPB rules limit to the size of the contracts non-Japanese players can sign when first arriving in the league.
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