With the new posting agreement between Major League Baseball and NPB in place pitcher Masahiro Tanaka has informed his current team Rakuten Eagles he wants to explore opportunities in Major League Baseball.
MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball have finalized a new posting system that essentially caps the fee at which players can be bid upon at $20 million.
Under the previous agreement, which began in 1998 and ran through last offseason, there was no cap on bidding and only the MLB team with the highest bid could negotiate with the player.
“I informed my team that I would like them to allow me to test my abilities in Major League Baseball next season,” Tanaka said at a news conference Tuesday after a meeting with Rakuten Eagles president Yozo Tachibana.
Team president Yozo Tachibana asked Tanaka for time to think it over. Last night Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times said a decision was close and could come down as early as Tuesday.
The new fee might be good for the players who ultimately have more teams bidding for their services, but for the teams losing the players not so much. The Eagles rejected terms of the new posting system in a vote by Japan’s 12 teams Monday and say they want to re-sign Tanaka for next season.
Thats more likely a response to losing out on a financial windfall than anything else and you can’t blame them. The Boston Red Sox obtained Daisuke Matsuzaka from the Seibu Lions before the 2007 season for more than $51 million and agreed to a $52 million, six-year contract.
The Texas Rangers got Yu Darvish from the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters before the 2012 season for $51.7 million and gave him a $56 million, six-year deal.
The new posting system was developed after teams in MLB objected that only the richest teams could afford to bid on top players. Obviously not everyone is happy with the arrangement.
