New Posting System Set For Approval

There has been a lot of talk about the posting system from Nippon Professional Baseball, and for good reason. Until the new posting system is approved, Masahiro Tanaka... a giant target for the Yankees... is stuck.  Well, an agreement is about ready.

It was believed that players posted from NPB would be able to choose from the top three bidding teams, but that is no longer the case. The only change the system will have is that instead of the top bidder paying how much they bid, the top bidder will instead pay the average of the top two bids.

This is to prevent what we saw happen to the Texas Rangers when they won the bidding for Yu Darvish. The Rangers had apparently bid about $20 million higher than the second team, but they still had to pay nearly $60 million for the rights to negotiate with Darvish (who eventually signed a $60 million contract). If the new system was in place at the time, the Rangers would have instead had to pay roughly $50 million to negotiate.

The new system is set to be approved on Monday, and bidding for players such as Tanaka could start next Wednesday. I know the Yankees and their fans will be relieved, as we tend not to be the most patient people.