Left-hander Darío Sarduy officially signed his contract with the Soft Bank Halcones this Saturday at the Latinoamericano Stadium. Yesterday our sister page Pelota Cubana announced this agreement and today it became completely official that the hurler will joined the legendary ballclub for the next campaign.
Our colleague Francys Romero revealed via his X account through his sources the terms of the contract, since the contract is for six years and was negotiated through the Cuban Baseball Federation. The left-hander will have a bonus offer of $100,000 in the first season. The 18-year-old has reinforced the Cazadores de Artemisa in the II Liga Elite Baseball League and his appearance before the scouts who attended Cuba last September, left pleasant impression on them, especially Kenta Hagiwara and Teppei Ueda of SoftBank.
Cuban left-hander Dario Sarduy signs with the @HAWKS_official .#CubanBaseballDigest #NPB pic.twitter.com/TWHHoJa7UO
— Cuban Baseball Digest (@CBaseballDigest) January 13, 2024
Sarduy will begin his career in the minor leagues of the Nippon League, he currently throws a fastball between 87-89 MPH. With maturity and the speed on his heater will surely increase once he gets to work with the ballclub. One thing that also caught the attention of the scouts during his showcases were his excellent breaking pitches, especially his above-average curve.
Next November he will turn 19 and the most worrisome thing to the team about the young lefty is his control, because in the current Liga Elite he has walked 37 in 35.1 innings, something that he will have to improve if he is to to prevail in the demanding Japanese circuit.
For the next season in addition to Raidel Martínez and Omar Linares (hitting coach) with the Chunichi Dragons, Christian Rodríguez, also from Villa Clara, Frank Abel Álvarez, from Pinar del Río, and Carlos Monier from Santiago have also signed minor league contracts and will be on the farms with in the Asian circuit. Liván Moinelo will return to the Soft Bank Halcones as will Ariel Martínez with Nippon- Ham.