This is pretty awesome. Because the posting fee for Japanese players is now capped at $20 million, teams have a way lower incentive to post their players, as they used to be able to get way more. That’s been the holdup for Rakuten, the team which is trying to decide if it will post Masahiro Tanaka. Is it worth losing the best pitcher they’ll likely have for decades for $20 million?
Well, their competition is helping make that decision easier:Source: Other teams in Japan considering kicking in $ for Rakuten to make up for diminished posting fee on Tanaka, to move toward agreement.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) December 13, 2013
This is fantastic. I mean, yes, there may be other incentives at play here, but I’m going to choose to think that this is the equivalent of the other NL West teams paying the Dodgers to get rid of Clayton Kershaw or the AL Central teams banding together to encourage the Tigers to release Miguel Cabrera.
