Written by Jon Paul Morosi at MLB.com
At last, we can say it: Shohei Ohtani is coming to Major League Baseball in 2018.
Officials from Major League Baseball, the MLB Players Association and Nippon Professional Baseball agreed Tuesday on a new posting system to govern player transfers from Japan to North America, sources confirmed to MLB.com. Once MLB owners ratify the terms on Dec. 1 — viewed as a formality — the NPB’s Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters will post Ohtani to MLB clubs, initiating a courtship period for the two-way phenom that will culminate just before Christmas.
The deal’s terms were first reported by MLB Network insider Joel Sherman and subsequently confirmed to MLB.com by multiple sources.
The posting agreement runs through Oct. 31, 2021, meaning it will continue for the length of baseball’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement. In some cases, the new provisions won’t take effect immediately. For example, the Fighters will be awarded a $20 million posting fee in exchange for transferring Ohtani’s rights, the maximum allowed under the previous posting agreement. In future years, NPB clubs will receive release fees according to the amount of guaranteed money in the player’s initial MLB contract: 20 percent of the first $25 million, 17.5 percent of the next $25 million, and 15 percent on all amounts above $50 million.
A 25 percent fee will accompany all Minor League contracts beginning next offseason, according to the agreement.
The scaled release fees represented a breakthrough in negotiations. The compromise helped convince Japanese baseball officials to move off a prior insistence on “pull back” rights that would have allowed NPB teams to rescind posting offers if they produced lower-than-expected contracts.
“I thank both [Major League Baseball chief legal officer] Dan Halem and [Major League Baseball vice president and deputy general counsel, labor relations] Pat Houlihan for their commitment to try to reach an agreement,” Nobby Ito, chief officer for NPB rules and labor, said of the lead MLB negotiators with whom he worked. “I respect their professionalism throughout the negotiation in the last seven months.”
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