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News: Mets & Yankees meet today with Yusei Kikuchi

by Matthew Cerrone on October 20th, 2009 at 8:50 am

As noted yesterday, Japanese 18-year-old left-hander Yusei Kikuchi is scheduled to meet with the Mets, Yankees, Indians and Mariners today, according to NPB Tracker.

He met with the Red Sox, Dodgers, Rangers and Giants yesterday, and with 12 NPB teams over the weekend.

from what i can gather, each team has less than an hour to speak with him… the Japanese teams are leaning on him to stay in Japan, and build up his career before leaving for MLB, like Daisuke Matsuzaka didwhereas MLB teams will likely have to offer a guaranteed Major League contract, worth around $1.5 million per seasonthough, he would still likely start his career in the low-level minor leagues in either case, he must decide by tomorrow whether to stay or go… if he leaves for MLB, he is unlikely to announce his team until November…

To learn more about Kikuchi, read this post at NPB Tracker.