Adjust Font Size: A A       Guest settings   Register

Japanese Lesson: Hot Stove Lexicon

NPB Tracker Archives

Japanese Lesson: Hot Stove Lexicon

by Patrick Newman (Nov 27, 2010)

This is something I’ve always wanted to do — find a way to be more supportive of people learning Japanese. I occasionally get asked to translate things, but only rarely do those queries come from a Japanese learner.

So here’s a mini Japanese lesson, consisting of terms that are contextual to the offseason and hot stove league. Many of these terms won’t appear in your run-of-the-mill Japanese class, but you will find most of them on Nihongodict.com.

Obviously, this isn’t a comprehensive list. If anyone out there has any questions or any terms to add to the list, fire away in the comments.


Back to the works of Patrick Newman
Search for Pro Yakyu news and information
Copyright (c) 1995-2024 JapaneseBaseball.com.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Some rights reserved.
JapaneseReadingEnglishNotes
ストーブリーグsutoubu riguhot stove leagueJapanese does away with the “hot” and calls it simply a “stove league”.
獲得kakutokuacquire
契約keiyakucontract
契約更改keiyaku henkoucontract renewalMost NPB players go year to year with their contracts, so during each offseason, a new contract at a new salary is negotiated for the following year.
仮契約karikeiyakuprovisional contractThis is usually used to the first contract signed by recent NPB draftees.
大型条件ougata joukensignificant termsThis indicates a big contract offer, usually in terms of number of years or annual salary.
新戦力shinsenryokunew competitive strength“senryoku” doesn’t translate particularly nicely in a baseball context. This term, with the “shin” prefix, is used to describe the acquisition of a new player. For example, a new pitcher acquired by an NPB team might be refered to as “shinsenryoku”, where as in English we might say the team has “bolstered” it’s pitching staff.
戦力外senryokugaiuneeded competitive strengthconsersely, adding the “gai” (outside) modifier to “senryoku” indicates that a player is no longer needed and will be released. In English we might say the player “doesn’t fit into the team’s plans”.
ポスティングシステムposutingu shisutemuposting system
入札制度nyusatsu seidobidding systemwhen the term “posting system” appears in a Japanese article, it is usually followed with this term in parentheses
入札nyusatsubid
大リーグ / メジャー挑戦Dai rigu / mejaa chousenbig league / major league challenge“chousen suru” is a general term meaning to
入団nyudanjoin a team
テスト入団testo nyudantryout with a specific teamin English we usually call this a “tryout” or ‘trial”.
12球団合同トライアウトjuuni kyudan goudou toraiauto12 team group tryoutThe NPB 12-team tryouts occur every offseason, and give players who have been released a chance to showcase themselves for other teams. It includes some kind of simulated game played by the players taking part, but I’m not sure how simulated and how competitive it is.
決定ketteiconfirmed
オファーofaaoffer
交渉koushounegotiations
フリーエージェント(FA)宣言furii eejento (FA) sengendeclare free agencyFree agency is abbreviated as FA, and comes in two varieties “kokunai” (国内, domestic) and “kaigai” (海外, overseas)
移籍isekimoveused when a player moves to a new team. Ie,松井、エンジェルズ移籍. Can be couple with FA (FA Iseki
残留zanryuremainused when a player who is eligible for free agency and stays put. The big recent example is Hisashi Iwakuma
有力yuuryokuleadIn the hot stove context, this is often used to indicate the leading candidate to land a player.
提示teijiproposalDiffers from “offer” in that this is usually a general proposal of terms, while offer is more official.
代理人dairininagent
トレードtoreedotrade
大筋合意osuji gouiagree to terms