After several weeks of haggling, MLB and NPB have officially announced the new posting system agreement. It’s a three-year deal. The new system does not include a bidding process, the NPB team simply sets a “release fee” of up to $20M for the player, and any team willing to pay the fee can negotiate with him. Only the team that signs the player has to pay the fee. The details are here.
Now that the new system is in place, the Rakuten Golden Eagles can finally post right-hander Masahiro Tanaka. There is no guarantee they will do that, however. The $20M maximum release fee is less than half of what they were expecting under the old system. At the Winter Meetings last week, the Rakuten team president said he will speak to Tanaka this week before determining whether to post him. They will reportedly try to convince him to remain in Japan for another season after helping the team win a championship in 2013.
Update: This Sanspo report (translated article) says Tanaka will be posted, but nothing is official yet. We should know soon either way.
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