Chiba Lotte Tightens Screws on Irabu

Hideki Irabu was told Tuesday that his old team, the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Pacific League, won’t take him back unless he apologizes and signs a release saying he will never try to play for a major league team in North America.

Chiba Lotte assigned Irabu’s big-league negotiating rights to the San Diego Padres in January. Irabu refused to negotiate with San Diego, saying he would deal only with the New York Yankees. He returned to Japan last month when the Padres hadn’t completed a deal with the World Series champions.

But he quietly returned to Los Angeles about a week ago because it was too cold to work out in Japan, and he and his wife couldn’t get any privacy, his attorney, Jean Afterman, said Tuesday.

Irabu considered playing for an independent league team in Canada to stay in shape, but now Japanese owners and players have proposed lowering the amount of service time needed for free agency in their country from 10 years to nine.

Irabu calculates he has eight years, 102 days with the Marines and needs 48 more days to become eligible for free agency and sign with whichever big-league team he chooses.

He has described the Marines’ transfer of negotiating rights to the Padres as “slave trade.” The remark injured the Marines’ reputation and Irabu must apologize, team spokesman Yuji Horimoto said.

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