Yomiuri Giants infielder Michihiro Ogasawara agreed to a ¥360 million pay cut when he signed a deal for ¥70 million on Wednesday, the biggest cut in Japanese baseball history. The cut is equal to $4,376,898.40 in American dollars. and his new salary is $851,063.58. The 39-year-old played in 34 games, his fewest since his rookie season in 1997, and batted .152, also a career low.
Ogasawara was in the final year of a two-year deal worth ¥430 million a year , equal to the richest deal for a Japanese player in Nippon Professional Baseball at that time. Since then Ogasawara has been limited by injury to just 117 games and a .220 batting average with five home runs.
Players earning up to ¥100 million cannot have their pay cut by more than 25 percent without their permission. Players earning more than ¥100 million cannot have their pay cut by over 40 percent without their approval.
