Major League Baseball and Japanese professional baseball moved closer toward an agreement today that would allow Japanese teams to "post" players for Major League Baseball once again. This is of particular interest this season since Japanese ace pitcher Masahiro Tanaka likely will be posted once allowed. While teams salivate for the opportunity to sign Tanaka, they can only watch until an agreement is reached.
Baseball America's Ben Badler reports the new system is designed to help keep rich teams from abusing the posting policy:
Under the altered system MLB reportedly proposed, the MLB team with the highest posting bid on a player would pay the average of the top two bids to the Japanese club as the posting fee. MLB is trying to reduce the posting fees, which would likely decrease the overall amount of money teams would have to spend to sign Japanese players. It would also likely allow MLB to count a greater percentage of what a team pays to acquire a Japanese player against the luxury tax, since only the posting fee itself is not subject to the tax.
Teams with money such as the Phillies will have an advantage over other teams, as they could spend more than other teams while not being subject to the tax. So why doesn't Major League Baseball just agree to count that towards the tax? Badler explains that, too:
Counting the posting fees against the luxury tax would require revising the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which is unlikely to happen until the current agreement ends after the 2016 season because the MLB Players’ Association would have to approve any changes.
Tanaka went 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA in the Japanese league for the Tohunk Rakuten Golden Eagles, as he guided them to a Japanese championship. However, the Golden Eagles likely will let Tanaka cash in as they cash in themselves. Tanaka is under contract with the Golden Eagles, but once he becomes a free agent, he will be able to sign with an American team with no compensation sent to the Golden Eagles. Hideki Matsui is a prominent example of a player who waited until free agency and signed with a Major League team. The posting fee would go to the Golden Eagles.
Could the Phillies be interested? Earlier this month, Paul Hagen of MLB.com noted that Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. would be looking "all over the globe" for pitching. The obvious follow-up question to that would be whether he was referring to Masahiro Tanaka.
Asked whether he would be willing to make an exception to the informal club guideline against offering long-term contracts to pitchers, as he did for Cole Hamels, Amaro said, "We don't have hard-and-fast rules. The shorter [contract] the better, but that doesn't always work out. We're looking all over the globe."
Asked if that was a reference to Tanaka, he added, "We have to try to be as open-minded as we can. We can't really cut off any markets. I don't know how realistic some of the markets are, but we'll keep our eyes open."
The Phillies showed a willingness to spend big on international free agents this offseason when they agreed to a contract with Cuban defector Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez. Gonzalez originally reportedly agreed to a six-year, $50 million contract with the Phillies. That deal was put into limbo after what many assume was a failed physical. The team signed him for just $12 million eventually. So, the Phillies have some extra money they did not spend on Gonzalez they could spend for Tanaka.
The Phillies would have plenty of competition for Tanaka, and it's not unreasonable to think that Tanaka will set a new record for an international signing.
