Japan’s baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani will indeed be offered to MLB clubs this winter. Japanese media agree with this. The expired agreement between the MLB and Nippon Baseball is no obstacle.
The Nippon Ham Fighters, Ohtani’s team, officially announced on Friday that the two-way player will be offered via the MLB’s well-known posting system.
The 23-year-old is the reigning MVP of the Pacific League and was pitcher 3-2 this season with a 3.20 ERA after having been limited in his use due to injuries to the thighs and ankle. At the plate he hit. 332 with 16 doubles, eight home runs and 31 RBI in 65 games.
Although the posting agreement between the MLB and NPB was signed on 31 December 2008, the MLB and NPB did not agree on the terms of the agreement. The two sides are supposed to have agreed weeks ago that the previous model is still valid this winter. But this has not yet been announced.
Under the current rules, MLB teams can offer a maximum of $20 million for a player offered by the Japanese. If several teams do this, they all have the right to negotiate with the player. Otherwise, only the highest bidder may do so.
Ohtani’s situation is a special one, because he falls into the category of international amateurs at the age of 23 and is therefore subject to spending limits on the part of the MLB clubs. As a result, he could receive no more than $3.535 million in signing bonuses from the Texas Rangers. The New York Yankees are expected to pay a maximum of 3.25 million, the Minnesota Twins 3.245 million.
If Ohtani, who had hired Nez Balelo from CAA Sports as an agent at the beginning of the week, would only move to MLB in two years’ time, he would then be able to negotiate his upcoming contract completely freely. In this way, Masahiro Tanaka signed with the Yankees for seven years and 155 million dollars before the 2014 season.
While NPB and MLB seem to be in agreement, misfortune threatens elsewhere. The MLBPA players’ union must also agree with the deal, but the prospect of Ham Fighters earning more money in this transaction than the player himself could upset the union badly. Ken Rosenthal from The Athletic and Joel Sherman from the New York Post speculate on this, however.
This article was published without prior view by the Major League Baseball.