Editorials

MLB News: Details Emerge About Possible MLB, NPB Posting System

Masahiro TanakaAs free agency heats up, the biggest domino to fall in the pitching market is still Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka. The 25-year-old sensation went 24-0 with with a 1.27 ERA as MLB and NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball) continue to negotiate a posting system.

NPB was reportedly too late in accepting the terms of a deal weeks ago, but it sounds like both sides are closing in an agreement. According to Bill Shaikin of the LA Times, NPB is slated to meet tomorrow to review the terms:



 

The max bid that teams can submit is $20 million and it was reported earlier that if multiple teams bid, the team with the lowest winning percentage would gain the right to negotiate exclusively with the player. That’s not the case as the player, Tanaka, would negotiate with all teams that submit a max bid of $20 million.

At the moment, the Dodgers level of interest in Tanaka isn’t known as GM Ned Colletti has mentioned they’ve scouted him, but they could decide against putting an aggressive bid on him. At the moment, Colletti and Stan Kasten seem to be taking the frugal approach in free agency, but the Dodgers are the presumed favorites for his services, granted the agreement is reached.

If signed, Tanaka would slide behind Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu, giving the Dodgers arguably the best rotation in all of baseball.Hopefully an agreement is reached between MLB and NPB as Tanaka’s posting is seen as the next domino to fall in the free agent pitching market.

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Ross Gasmer

Ross Gasmer is a Social Media Producer for @TheHerd and was a contributing writer and editor for Dodger Nation. Follow him on Twitter @Ross_Gasmer12

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