Posting Gone Wrong

         

Byung Ho Park

          Major League Baseball is a bit different from other major sports in America because of a few different factors. First, there are far more players throughout an MLB organization than in the NFL or NBA. NFL comes relatively close, but baseball players still outnumber. Second, MLB does not have a hard salary cap. There is a luxury tax threshold, as the Dodgers are currently dealing with, but it doesn't always curb spending for the largest of markets. MLB also has limitations on how much can be spent on foreign players, particularly with regards to Central and South America. These limitations work in sort of a slot system, and charges work against the tax and additional taxes can be levied by going over the international allotment, as the Dodgers are yet again ignoring. Negotiations with Japanese and Korean players, however, do not factor into the international allotment because those players are not really considered "prospects." In fact, many tend to be in their late 20s, and sometimes 30s.
          There is a flip side. MLB has an agreement with the Korean Baseball Organization, as well as Nippon Professional Baseball (Japanese Baseball). With both leagues, MLB teams can not just poach players at will like they sort of can in other countries. Of course, that is simplifying some of the struggles Cuban players in particular have to go through defecting in order to play in MLB, but teams can still at least pick a player and sign him. Rather, in KBO and NPB, teams must post their player for MLB teams to bid on. It's slightly different rules for each; in KBO, there is a blind bid system where the winning team gets 30 days to negotiate with the player, and the bid goes to the surrendering team if an agreement is reached. That's actually how it used to be in NPB too, but now it is a system where the NPB team must set a requirement up to $20,000,000, and any team willing to cough up that amount gains the ability to negotiate with the player and pay the posting fee if an agreement is reached. This was instituted to move away from such situations as Daisuke Matsuzaka agreement that saw $51,110,000 go to the Seibu Lions, and $52,000,000 over 6 years go to Matsuzaka himself.
          Is this all fair to the player though? While players in Cuba can defect (relatively speaking) and by extension reach a sort of free agency, players in the KBO and NPB can't actually become international free agents until a certain number of years in their respective leagues (9 for NPB). This limits their overall market value dramatically. A player the likes of Matsuzaka would have likely earned at least double what he was able to keep himself if he had just been born in America.
          Veteran agent Alan Nero gave some insight into why the system is the way it is for KBO, and honestly he does make some good points. The posting system allows surrendering teams to gain money to help offset other costs. However, should that offsetting come at the costs of their players? In fact, in the recent case of Byung Ho Park of the now Minnesota Twins, the posting fee submitted was more than the entirety of the 4-year contract Park signed in MLB. Something about that seems wrong.
          I appreciate MLB's attempts to get a more even platform with the NPB. However, until it moves to either the same system with the KBO, or develops something new entirely, players will continue to miss out on potential earnings while their former teams reap the benefits. Big name players will keep coming from the KBO. Can MLB look out for them?

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