When it comes to Shohei Ohtani, the biggest question most American baseball fans have is whether their favorite team can afford him.
But it’s not just a matter of paying Ohtani, and that irks agent Scott Boras.
The old posting system between Major League Baseball, the MLB Players Association and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball expired Oct. 31, at the time casting doubt on whether Ohtani would be able to come to the states this offseason. But the three parties hurried to complete a new, temporary deal, making it possible for the pitching and hitting phenom to pursue his MLB dream immediately.
The nature of the deal, obviously, is complicated. But what’s important to know is that the NPB receives a $20 million posting fee from teams wishing to negotiate with Ohtani, who only can sign for what teams have left in their international signing pool allocations.
If Ohtani waited until he was 25 years old, however, he’d be free to sign a free agent deal with the highest bidder.
And that’s why Boras, who lost out on the chance to represent Ohtani, thinks the Japanese star’s best interests have been completely ignored in this whole ordeal. In a recent interview with The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, Boras painted Ohtani as a victim.
“The union will tell you they do not want to bar a player from coming here as long as he is aware of his rights,” Boras told Rosenthal. “The player will tell you his lifelong dream is to play in MLB. Underneath it all, his Japanese team took their interest to the forefront. They won the title a year ago and now Ohtani would have cost (approximately $5 million) in Japan. Most importantly, they want $20 million now and don’t want the risk of him getting hurt and losing the money.
“Now (Ohtani) no longer has the protection of his Japanese team or the MLB posting rules. He is precocious, greatness cast adrift, forced into the MLB lifeboat. And his admission is handcuffs that prevent him from getting at least what his older, lesser valued peers received — in (Masahiro) Tanaka’s case, more than $150 million. Is this an international event or an international incident?”
Boras added: “We should have a far greater respect for the NPB and young Japanese players.”
He also thinks the new deal opens the doors for big-market teams to work around signing restrictions by enticing Ohtani with lucrative sponsorship deals.
“This current process has circumvented the CBA parity requirement for entry-level players, created a payment mechanism to players that is outside CBA jurisdiction and review — endorsement contracts with team sponsors — and deprived the majority of the teams, outside major markets, from competitively serving as an option,” Boras said.
Ohtani will be posted Friday. The “Japanese Babe Ruth” has gone 42-15 with a 2.52 ERA in five professional seasons with the NPB while slashing .286/.358/.500 with 48 home runs and 166 RBI in 403 games.
