With the huge buzz that the Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish is creating, I started to wonder about this mysterious Japanese player posting system I kept reading about. It seemed like a secret that no one wanted to explain clearly and every article I read raised another question. Why is it only for Japanese players? What prompted this posting system in the first place? But the biggest one I had was simply this… what was to stop any team from just bidding an outrageous amount without any intention of actually signing the player? Wouldn’t this just prevent the Japanese player from coming to play in the majors without any penalty? (Since the secretive winning bid just gets returned to the team).
I have done additional reading plus investigating and, it turns out, the history line is actually quite interesting. Japan and the United States have had a long history of cultural and economic exchange, both well before and after World War 2. America brought over baseball to Japan somewhere between the 1850’s and the 1870’s, and it quickly became one of Japan’s favorite sports. Over the years many US teams have visited Japan and many Americans have played in the Japanese leagues. Japan’s national teams have done very well winning the World Baseball Classic in both 2006 and 2009.
But let’s get back to the history line… and fair warning dear reader, this is a lengthy article!
In 1964 a Japanese team (the Nankai Hawks) sent 3 young players over to play in the San Francisco Giant’s minor league system as part of an exchange student program. Such cultural exchanges were common during this time period between Japan and the US at all levels of society. The 3 Japanese players played for the Giants’ A level team and were only expected to gain some valuable experience before heading back to Japan at the end of the season. One of the Japanese players, though, was extremely impressive. Masanori Murakami, a 20 year old relief pitcher, was named the California League Rookie of the Year! He was a side armed left-handed reliever, something very rare in Major League Baseball. Minor league seasons usually end around the later part of August and the Giants decided to promote Murakami to the Majors as part of their September expanded roster. A move that was completely unexpected by his Japanese team, the Hawks. He thus became the first Japanese born player to appear in the MLB.
Murakami pitched very well during that final month impressing the Giants, so much so that they wanted to bring him back for the 1965 season. This was something the Nankai Hawks did not want any part of and demanded for his return to Japan. Murakami’s fast rise in America made him a quick baseball fan cult favorite and the Hawks expectations of the young pitcher suddenly were very high. This created a dispute between the Giants, who said they had properly followed the rules of bringing up a minor leaguer (by purchasing the minor league contract), and the Nankai Hawks, who said they still held the Japanese player’s rights. Since there were no proper rules or agreements in place, a stalemate arose between the two teams and the two leagues had to step in to mediate the dispute (the Japanese league is called the NPB, short for Nippon Professional Baseball). It was agreed upon that Murakami would play the 1965 season for the Giants and then return to his Japanese team.
This incident led to the two leagues (MLB and NPB) creating the 1967 “Workers Agreement”. Basically this agreement just amounted to the MLB acknowledging they would leave Japanese players alone and respect the Japanese team’s rights to their players. If a player did eventually go through the Japanese system properly, become a free agent after the necessary years and sign with a major league team, the Japanese team was still supposed to receive some vague compensation (I am assuming an agreed upon amount of money).
Japan as a society is geographically isolated and this has led them to certain cultural viewpoints. The Japanese are willing to delay rewards, put forth their best efforts for their teams (this also applies to family, company and country), and to avoid open conflict. Basically their culture frowned upon individuals seeking personal reward (at least openly) and this applied to their baseball players too. Going to play in America was to openly challenge the Japanese culture!
With this closed-door point of view in place, it took 30 years between appearances of the first Japanese born player Masanori Murakami until the second one, Hideo Nomo. Nomo dreamed of playing in the Majors against the world’s best players. He did not want to wait the extraordinary amount of time the Japanese league had in place to become a free agent (currently it is 9 years!). At the urging of his agent, Nomo used a loophole in the "working agreement" and voluntarily retired from the NPB in 1994. This allowed him to void his Japanese contract and sign on with a MLB team (he signed with the Dodgers in 1995). This infuriated the NPB and to make matters worse, the Dodgers did not offer Nomo’s old Japanese team any compensation.
In 1997, the San Diego Padres negotiated for the rights to pitcher Hideki Irabu from his Japanese team, the Chiba Lotte Marines. Irabu had made it clear to the Marines that he wanted to play in the US against the worlds best. Many of the other major league teams were very upset with not having been included and not having a chance to acquire Irabu. The Padres and Marines also did not actually consult Irabu nor his agent before finalizing the selling of his rights. Irabu made it clear he wasn’t happy and that under no circumstances would he ever show up to play for the Padres. Shortly after that, he actually demanded to be traded to the NY Yankees saying they were the only team he would play for! With both the players association (since Irabu wasn’t consulted) and the rest of the teams complaining, MLB’s executive council had no choice but to step in and judge the situation. They decided that since the old “worker’s agreement” wasn’t violated, nothing was done wrong and that the Padres legally owned his rights. By May though, the Padres caved in and traded Irabu to the Yankees (I think we all remember how that worked out).
Then we come to Alfonso Soriano in 1998. Soriano was not happy with his overall situation in Japan and more specifically with his team, the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. He did not enjoy the regimented league and it’s intense practice schedule. He was also upset with the Carps who would not raise his salary above the league minimum $45 Thousand (he was seeking $180 Thousand). Initially, to no avail, Soriano and his agent tried to void his contract claiming he was a minor when he signed it. Then he followed Nomo’s lead and voluntarily retired from the NPB. This impelled the Carp to contact all the MLB teams and demand they did not negotiate with Soriano. NPB officials then contacted MLB officials to point out the new amendment they started including in all player contracts (thanks to Hideo Nomo's incident from 1994). This amendment gave the NPB teams the right to prohibit a player from signing any new contract anywhere else after voluntarily retiring. Since the MLB had never heard of this before, much less been consulted about it, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig ruled that Soriano was a valid free agent. (We all remember he signed with the New York Yankees and was eventually traded for AROD, right?)
These 3 separate incidents in the ‘90’s showed that the old 1967 “worker’s agreement” didn’t really work and something needed to be done before more friction between the two leagues occurred. So in December 1998, a new agreement was drafted and signed called the “posting system”. The newly designed “posting system” attempted to address every problem brought up by the three separate cases: Hideo Nomo, Hideki Irabu and Alfonso Soriano. This agreement has been in effect since then on a year-by-year basis between the two leagues. It only applies to players under contract with Japanese teams and only during their first 9 years in the NPB.
The Actual Posting System Process:
1) Player on a Japanese team requests that their team post them so they may play in the major leagues.
2) If the Japanese club agrees to do so, they can post the player anytime between November 1st and March 1st. The posting must include all medical records on the player. This posting is sent to both leagues Commissioner’s offices (the MLB and the NPB).
3) The MLB Commissioner’s office notifies the major league clubs of the posting, and they then have 4 business days to submit a secret monetary bid.
4) The MLB Commissioner will determine the winning bidder at the end of the 4 day bidding period (the highest bid), and notify the NPB commissioner.
5) The NPB Commissioner then has 4 business days to notify the MLB Commissioner if the Japanese team has accepted the bid amount.
6) If the highest bid amount is rejected, the Japanese team keeps the player and is prohibited from posting the player again until the following year.
7) If the highest bid amount is accepted, The MLB Commissioner will notify the winning MLB team (the team that had the highest secret bid).
8) That MLB team then has 30 days from the date of notification to come to a contract agreement with the player (either major league or minor league contract).
9) If a contract agreement is reached with the player, the MLB team then has 5 business days to: notify the MLB Player’s association, the MLB Commissioner’s office and send the agreed upon payment amount to the Japanese team.
10) If a contract agreement cannot be reached with the player, no payment is sent and the player’s rights remain with the Japanese team. The Japanese team is prohibited from posting the player again until the following year.
The MLB Commissioner has complete authority while overseeing the bidding procedures. It is up to the MLB Commissioner to make sure the bidding process has not been compromised in any manner. He may take any action he deems appropriate in order to maintain the best interests of baseball. The MLB Commissioner has the power to even revoke the highest winning bid’s right to negotiate with the player, or void any contract agreed with the winning bidder, if the MLB Commissioner deems was the result of conduct that was inconsistent with the "posting system" agreement or the best interests of baseball. He also has the right to award the negotiating rights to the second highest bidder, subject to approval by the Japanese team.
Phew, that was a ton to digest! That last paragraph also answers my original fearful question, of what was to stop a team from just bidding any amount without any intention of signing the player. I suppose a team could still try and go though the motions in order to block a player from signing with all the other teams, but if the commissioner discovers the deception at least there are rules governing the next course of action.
So is this “posting system” actually working? Are both leagues happy with it? Unfortunately, there are continual complaints from players, player associations, teams and league officials from both leagues. But no one has yet to suggest a clear system that is an improvement. Since 2007 there has been sporadic discussions between the MLB and NPB to change the posting system, but nothing has obviously occurred.
Many players complain bitterly that they have next to zero input and are basically held hostage in the process. Some have even gone so far as to call it a “slave auction”. Players have no say about which team they are to negotiate with. Because the NPB team gets a huge monetary compensation, the process also usually results in the player getting a salary below the player’s true market value. I know the MLB teams would never bid so much money as they recently have if the bids were held against their luxury tax.
Officially, the Japanese Professional Baseball Players Association (JPBPA) was never consulted before the "posting system" was ratified. The NPB team owners never included them in any of the discussions. The JPBPA has continually voiced concerns over the "posting system" to no avail.
Many Japanese team owners and league officials loathe the system since it waters down the NPB talent pool. Something that is frowned upon by a majority of the Japanese baseball fans. Several NPB team owners have made it clear they will never post one of their players in a protest of the system.
After the November 2006 posting of Daisuke Matsuzaka (AKA Dice-K), most of the US media and many clubs were shocked and outraged over the winning bid amount from the Boston Red Sox. After that, the small market teams have claimed they are priced out of the posting system. Also, Dice-K’s agent was Scott Boras, who played a very dangerous game of chicken with the Red Sox and forced their hand. They paid Dice-K a salary much higher than they originally wanted to. Boras did not believe that the winning bid amount should affect the player’s contract.
This was followed shortly after by the posting of Kei Igawa, who was a complete failure at the major league level. This has helped scare off a good number of the MLB organizations that refuse to throw millions of dollars at players who aren’t major league proven. Since Matsuzaka and Igawa's postings, most MLB teams have been pushing to change the "posting system" towards a different system similar to free agency.
Since the posting system was set up in 1998, there have been 18 players who posted. Here is a break down of what has happened to them:
8 were signed to major league contacts
3 were signed to minor league contracts
3 were never bid upon and remained under control of the NPB team
1 was unable to reach a contract agreement
There are 3 postings that are still pending as we speak. Pitcher Yu Darvish (of course) with the Texas Rangers, Shortstop Hiroyuki with the New York Yankees and centerfielder Norichika Aoki with the Milwaukee Brewers.
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