Otani Will Be Posted, Made Available to MLB Teams

According to Japanese media reports, the Nippon Ham Fighters, Shohei Otani’s team, Have announced that they will indeed post the two-way star to make him available to MLB teams. While this is not new in and of itself — we’ve known for some time that the team had agreed to post Otani — the fact that they’re posting him means they’re pretty confident the last wrinkle in the process has been ironed out. Or at least that it will be.

Shohei Ohtani moves another step closer to MLB, as the Nippon-Ham Fighters announced they will post the two-way player this offseason, according to Japanese news reports.

— Dylan Hernández (@dylanohernandez) November 10, 2017

All that’s left at this point is for the MLBPA to approve the transfer agreement, which is unique in this case due to Otani’s status. Since he’s not a full-fledged free agent, he’s limited to international bonus caps. And those caps are further limited by timing, as most teams have already spent a majority of their allotment for this IFA period.

That’s good news for the Cubs, who are limited to a $300,000 max bonus to any individual player. Though it’s a far cry from the $3.5 million the Rangers have to offer, it’s seemingly irrelevant to a man who will already be forgoing an opportunity for hundreds of millions.

It’s probably just wishful thinking and creating something where nothing exists, but I want to read into Jed Hoyer’s silence on the Otani situation during his Thursday appearance on 670 The Score. It just seems that eschewing the question means there’s more that Hoyer didn’t want to discuss, rather than there actually being nothing.

Stay tuned, as you know we’ll have more on this when it develops.