Roberto Petagine will be Back

It is extremely rare for someone who has been dumped by a Japanese team to return. Unfortunately what has happened in the past does matter to Japanese baseball management, and Petagine was rather expensive. I wouldn't hold my breath.

Like said above, I doubt Petagine will be back after he criticized Yomiuri management openly. Petagine was also very expensive for an NPB team to maintain this previous off-season.

There's second rumors out of Boston that Olerud might be going, so Petagine might be up with the Red Sox before September when rosters expand.

Management critisizm aside, there have been a number of players who got too expensive, were dropped, and came back for different teams (and often the same team) in the recent past. Luis Lopez (of Hiroshima and Daiei fame, not the Rakuten one) comes to mind, as does Nippon Ham's Bernard Brito and Fernando Seguignol.

In Petagine's case, one could argue that it wasn't him critisizing the Giants. It was his wife. Of course, he's responsible when her outbursts get printed in the daily sports papers, like Nomura was responsible for his wife's tax evasion scandal and had to step down from his managerial position.

Oh, here's a good example that's probably more comparible to Petagine's current position than any of the above. Julio Franco joined the Marines in 1995 with Valentine-kantoku, and walked when Valentine got the ax. He was not at all pleased with Hirooka-GM's firing of Valentine, and said that he would not play for the team under Hirooka's rule. After Hirooka was ousted, though, Franco did return to the Marines and played fairly well while being one of the most popular players on the team in 1998. His age was the biggest factor in not getting re-signed. (And look at what he's doing now, at 43 years old is it?)

What I want to say is, more than his wife exploding at the Giants' front office, age is going to be the biggest factor in getting a job offer or not. Being in the minors now will bring his salary way down from its high with the Giants. A cheap base contract with a number of incentives could well be in the cards.

Welcome back Michael - it is great to have moderation again.

I see your points but do think that the management critisizm will be too great a hurdle to overcome. If the issue was just salary then a return would be possible. However, embarrassing the front office is not usually a forgiveable offence in the world of pro-yakyu.

Roberto Petagine just got called up by the Red Sox, due to John Olerud getting hurt. There you go, he is not coming back.

LET'S GO TIGERS!