It's official. The Rafuten Eagles have granted pitcher Mashiro Tanaka the right to play in the major leagues next season. They will be compensated millions of dollars by the new MLB posting system. The system has changed over the last year so that rich teams like the Yankees can't always win the bid.
Basically, an approximate contract is agreed upon ahead of time. All interested parties will have to pay a fee ahead of time to negotiate with him. That fee will be bases on his contract size and the compensation fee paid to his old Japanese team. That way no team will get any real advantage in negotiations.
Any team that wants him will post a non-refundable fee to the fund. It's been set at $20 million dollars. That way no team can pay him more than that, but at the same time each team will be helping to pay his contract. If 15 teams are interested, he and his old team will split the $300 million that will be designated for the fund. Most will go to his salary while a sizable chunk will be paid to his old team. It's a bit more complicated than all of that, but I don't understand it completely myself yet. It will make more sense once he signs with a MLB team. At least 8 teams are currently interested, but that number is expected to rise now that it's official.
At 25 years of age, he is the hottest pitching prospect in the world, with a proven track record in Japanese baseball, a league that is much better than our own AAA leagues, but not quite as good as MLB.
He'll probably sign with the Yankees.
sigh
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