Changes To The NPB Posting System Should Benefit The Yankees

Over the weekend, Joel Sherman posted a story on the latest developments in the effort to change the current posting system for players wishing to jump from the Nippon Professional Baseball league to Major League Baseball.  For years the posting rules have given no power to the player, only the MLB team who wins the right to negotiate with the player by submitting the highest posting bid to his NPB team.  Per the new proposed changes to that system, 1 team will still maintain exclusive negotiating rights if they win the bidding process, but the player will also have the option of choosing to negotiate with one of the other top 2 or 3 bidding teams.

Obviously this change would benefit the Yankees greatly in their pursuit of Masahiro Tanaka this offseason.  All reports indicate that they will be making a serious push for him and it seems reasonable to expect that they'll turn in one of, if not the highest posting bid.  Under these modified rules, which are expected to be in place by this Friday in time for the start of MLB free agency, the Yankees would still stand a solid chance of being able to work out a deal for Tanaka even if they don't win the post fee bidding.


Looking bigger picture, the change to this rule should put the Yankees in a better position to negotiate with all future Japanese free agents.  They already hold a huge financial advantage over the rest of their MLB competition, whether they choose to use it or not.  Now they'll also have the allure of playing in New York and for the Yankees, a place and franchise with a decorated history of Japanese players, working to their advantage as well.

Whether you're talking about past NPB free agents like Hideki Irabu and Hideki Matsui or MLB free agents like Ichiro Suzuki, the Yankees have always been a leading and fruitful destination for Japanese superstars and any player wishing to make the leap from Japan to MLB will know that history.  Those players having the power to choose multiple teams with which to negotiate should give the Yankees an even greater advantage over their competition and keep them at the forefront of any and every major player posting that comes up.  Hell, even Kei Igawa got paid a ton to join the Yanks and he was awful.  If Japanese players are looking to get the most money possible and play in a desirable atmosphere, it doesn't get better than playing for the Yankees.

Assuming this change goes through and is in place on Friday, this is something that the Yankees should play aggressively off of and use to their benefit this offseason and moving forward.  Even if Hal isn't interested in building a winning baseball team, he stands to make more money by bringing in big name Japanese players.  Now he might not even have to give up the highest posting figure to do it.