Major League Baseball officials have proposed a posting system to their Japanese counterparts that would make posted players, such as Masahiro Tanaka, essentially free agents with a surtax, The Post has learned.
In the old system, MLB clubs would submit blind bids with the highest gaining exclusive rights to negotiate with a player. For example, the Rangers won the post for Yu Darvish at $51.7 million, which was transferred to his Japanese team, the Nippon Ham Fighters. Texas then signed Darvish for six years at $56 million.
MLB and the Players Association wanted less money sent to Japanese teams and more for the players here, and particularly were concerned the blind bidding for Tanaka in a flush baseball economy could reach $70 million or more. Nippon Professional Baseball resisted initially, wanting to keep the lavish payments to teams, but Japanese media reports Wednesday had them capitulating.
If the system is approved, the maximum a Japanese team could request in a post is $20 million. Any MLB club willing to meet that sum could negotiate with the player over a prescribed one-month period, but with the understanding the team has to send the posting fee plus sign the player.
In the case of Tanaka, the Rakuten Golden Eagles will put the $20 million posting maximum on him, and he could expect a contract in the six-year, $100 million range or more. With many teams willing to pay that and the $20 million posting fee, this will be akin to free agency.
This hurts the Yanks, who wanted Tanaka because they liked him but also because the posting fee was not taxed and kept the contract — which is taxed — artificially low. Now it will be harder to fit Tanaka into the Yanks’ $189 million luxury-tax threshold plans for 2014, unless the posting is delayed late enough into January and the Yanks get suspension news regarding Alex Rodriguez that frees up more money.