in 1998 he represented hideki irabu, whose contract was sold by the chiba lotte marines to the san diego padres. irabu stated that he would only play for the new york yankees, and refused to sign with the padres. the padres traded the rights to irabu to the yankees, where he finally made his mlb debut. despite irabu's refusal to sign with the padres, other teams were unhappy that they didn't get the chance to bid on irabu.