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NPB Players Pushing For Earlier Free Agency

By Darragh McDonald | August 22, 2024 at 4:59pm CDT

Just like their counterparts in Major League Baseball, the players in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball have various ongoing labor battles in the context of their league. Evan Drellich of The Athletic took an extensive look at some of the current discussion topics in a column published this morning.

Some of the battles involves things like endorsement rights but fans of MLB will likely be most interested to know that the players are fighting for earlier free agency, which could allow some of them to make the move to North America sooner.

As laid out by Drellich, NPB players have two different forms of free agency. A player can achieve domestic free agency after seven or eight years in the league, depending on whether the player was drafted out of high school or college. Unlocking that right gives a player the ability to sign with another NPB club. But getting full international free agency, allowing a player to sign with an MLB club, takes nine years.

The Japan Professional Baseball Players Association is trying to lower both of those numbers to six years, the same amount of service time that MLB players need for free agency. One source tells Drellich that the league was willing to offer a reduction in domestic free agency but not international free agency, though the full details of that offer aren’t publicly known.

NPB players are often made available to MLB clubs before those nine years are up via the posting system. Under that system, the player’s NPB club posts them for MLB clubs, opening a 45-day negotiating window. If a player signs with an MLB club in that time, the NPB club gets a posting fee, which is relative to the size of the contract the player got from the MLB club. Bigger deals naturally lead to bigger posting fees. In an extreme example, when the Dodgers signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a 12-year, $325MM deal this offseason, they also had to pay almost $51MM to the Orix Buffaloes, the NPB team that posted him.

Although Yamamoto was able to come over to the majors at the relatively young age of 25, other pitchers often have to wait longer. Shota Imanaga, for example, was just posted in the most recent offseason and signed with the Cubs. He had pitched in parts of eight NPB seasons through 2023 but still didn’t have full international free agency. He is now in his debut MLB season at the age of 30.

There’s also no guarantee that a player will be made available via the posting system. Kodai Senga had to reach full international free agency before coming to the majors because his NPB club, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, has a team policy against posting their players. Senga signed with the Mets going into 2023, which was his age-30 season.

If the rules were to change, future players in a similar position to Imanaga or Senga could make the move to North America a few years earlier. That would increase their earning power in a couple of ways. Teams clearly value youth, as shown in the massive guarantee that Yamamoto got. Senga and Imanaga got $75MM and $53MM guarantees, respectively. Part of that may be due to the Dodgers valuing Yamamoto as more talented, but it’s also fair to assume that he wouldn’t have got as much money if he were heading into his age-30 season like Senga and Imanaga.

Beyond the age factor, if a player is able to reach full free agency at a young age, the lack of a posting fee could mean more money going directly to the player. The Cubs were willing to give Imanaga a $53MM guarantee but also paid $9.825MM to the Yokohama BayStars, his NPB club. Theoretically, that willingness to spend north of $60MM on Imanaga could have seen that amount of money go straight to him if he were a free agent, as opposed to the BayStars getting a big cut.

There’s nothing in Drellich’s article to suggest that changes are coming to the system that would affect younger players such as Roki Sasaki. Yamamoto was made available to MLB clubs just after turning 25, a notable age since that is when international players are no longer considered “amateurs” under MLB rules. Before turning 25, players are subject to the international bonus pool system, where each team gets roughly $4-8MM to spend on player bonuses. Broadly speaking, the small-market teams get bigger pools and the large-market clubs get smaller ones.

If a player wants to make the move before turning 25, they are therefore limited to a relatively modest bonus. For example, Shohei Ohtani left the NPB and signed with the Angels prior to his age-23 season. He received only a $2.3MM signing bonus at that time, obviously far less than what Yamamoto got by waiting until his 25th birthday.

Sasaki, who doesn’t turn 23 until November, may be in a similar boat to Ohtani. He turns 23 in November and there have been rumors that he may be posted this offseason. If that comes to pass, he would only be able to secure a small signing bonus of a few million bucks and there’s nothing to suggest that is changing.

Whether Sasaki is posted this winter or not is therefore another matter, but it could still be a notable change if it the JPBPA is successful in changing the free agency rules. In future, players as talented as Imanaga or Senga could have the chance to come over to Major League Baseball a few years earlier than under the current system, which could be a nice development both for those players and fans who want to see the best players competing against each other in North America.

It’s perhaps due to the constraints of the current system that another young Japanese player, Rintaro Sasaki, chose to play college ball in the United States rather than enter the NPB draft. While NPB clubs may not be excited about losing their control over players, they may also recognize that loosening the reins could reduce the chances of other players skipping the NPB entirely.

Whether the JPBPA will be successful remains to be seen. The system is not exactly analogous to the MLB-MLBPA dynamic. As laid out by Drellich, the collective bargaining agreement doesn’t have a set time limit like in North America, rather a rolling and ongoing negotiation. It’s also a complicated legal matter involving Japanese antitrust laws, with JPBPA set to file a challenge to the NPB’s reserve system at some point this year. Fans interested in getting into all the nitty-gritty details of the negotiations are encouraged to read the piece in full.

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28 Comments

  1. Old York

    1 year ago

    NPB is turning into the AAA league for MLB.

    1
    Reply
  2. Gwynning

    1 year ago

    The players should be able to pursue a MLB career sooner, imo. The NPB is “too quick to be too strict” in sharing the talent.

    6
    Reply
    • SteveFinleyEnthusiast

      1 year ago

      Until then, AJ will have to keep finding spare change to sign Roki. I already pledged $5 monthly.

      1
      Reply
      • Gwynning

        1 year ago

        Start adding some zeroes, c’mon Fin! Your pledge of $50 a day will clothe young Roki, and send him to school with a proper lunch…

        4
        Reply
        • SteveFinleyEnthusiast

          1 year ago

          The ladies at Pacers will be sad to see me go, but you’re right! They’ll forgive me when I bring Sasaki-san and Tommy Pham with me!

          2
          Reply
        • Gwynning

          1 year ago

          Lmao

          I miss Dirty Dan’s, it was Pacers on a budget lol

          2
          Reply
    • good vibes only

      1 year ago

      They are free to pursue a MLB career sooner. They sign out of high school just like American kids. The NPB is a professional league and these kids sign their rights fully knowing the rules. I do greedily wish we could see the studs in America sooner, though!

      3
      Reply
      • Gwynning

        1 year ago

        You’re right Vibes, but let the kids back out sooner. They never know if the MLB will come knocking and they just want to play ball.

        3
        Reply
      • User 4245925809

        1 year ago

        Culture is a bit different and still is. has opened up a lot, including S/korea and taiwan but is still pretty conservative is how have read.

        That said.. Some high end talent has signed out of high school from Taiwan and S/korea in the US and very rarely.. Japan. Think Junichi Tazawa is the guy am thinking of Boston signed yrs ago caused such a fuss out of school from Japan.

        That said.. Maybe NPB players union won’t bargain away rights easy and force club owners to allow earlier FA, rather than have nonsense like salad chef in clubhouse and other frivelous items some player reps were supposedly demanding the last mlbpa in the US.

        3
        Reply
  3. DarkSide830

    1 year ago

    This obviously impacts the posting system as it’s most likely 1st contract NPB players will be full fleged professional FA eligible for only a few years before they are actual free agents. MLB really should make it so that you aren’t an amateur FA if you’ve played any NPB/KBO ball, but that would never happen because screw actually good young players, you gotta sign for international slot money to appease the “small-market” (aka cheap) owners.

    2
    Reply
  4. MacGromit

    1 year ago

    Yup, 110% right @41. That Ohtani guy’s 15 mins of fame is about to expire for sure.

    4
    Reply
  5. Paleobros

    1 year ago

    Oh dang the rare double mute!

    4
    Reply
    • Gwynning

      1 year ago

      I’d like to thank the Academy… my parents… all the kids I’ll never meet… gosh, oh Chris Rock… my Porsche mechanic… geez, too many!

      4
      Reply
  6. sad tormented neglected mariners fan

    1 year ago

    I like this so we can see good players in the game longer

    Imagine if Ichiro made it to the MLB at age 20, his career would be so long

    5
    Reply
    • Acoss1331

      1 year ago

      Ichiro would have easily hit 4000 hits, maybe even broke Pete’s record if he had started his MLB career sooner.

      3
      Reply
    • SteveFinleyEnthusiast

      1 year ago

      20 year-old Ichiro hit .385 in the NPB; 210 hits in 130 games, hot damn

      5
      Reply
      • YankeesBleacherCreature

        1 year ago

        And NPB only play 144 games per season. Ichiro averaged 189 hits/162 MLB games.

        3
        Reply
    • Gwynning

      1 year ago

      Barring catastrophic injury, Ichiro would definitely be the hit king of MLB. Technically… he is the “Professional Baseball” all-time hits leader! Rose is salty about it, too. Ha

      5
      Reply
      • User 4245925809

        1 year ago

        This isn’t intended to cause a stir, but the usual uptights will take it that way regardless…

        You are exactly correct (again) Gwynning and the NPB has been tough league for decades. Imagine if people would go to that island and not teach the young men anything at all, except how to play baseball for decades.. Like has been going on in several islands/countries south of the US?

        You think the US would be awash with Japanese players? Not meant as an insult towards anyone, or anybody, just facts.

        Japanese learned the sport, mostly from US servicemen, kept it’s best at home and guard against exporting them as much as possible.

        Good in it, bad in it. I’d like to see NPB numbers added like another league was to official MLB figures as an ending to this. 3 greatest leagues tied together as they should be.

        3
        Reply
        • SteveFinleyEnthusiast

          1 year ago

          Granted, this was only two weeks of watching NPB on TV and attending 1 game – but Japanese fans as a whole seemed more passionate about baseball than we are Stateside.

          I had read about this passion before my trip, but seeing it in person firsthand was still surprising. I wish I had been able to go to more than 1 game, because everyone was into the game for each pitch, each inning, with chants, songs, etc. Easily one of the best baseball experiences I’ve had as a fan.

          I’d imagine the fans there would not want to lose their biggest stars at an earlier rate. As much as I would like to see Sasaki, Murakami, and others in MLB right now, I definitely see why NPB would want to guard against that happening faster.

          2
          Reply
      • Bucket Number Six

        1 year ago

        Ichiro is not the all-time professional hits leader. Add in Rose’s minor league hots and Pete is on top.

        Reply
        • Gwynning

          1 year ago

          mlb.com/news/ichiro-suzuki-amazing-stats

          3
          Reply
        • Clofreesz

          1 year ago

          If you think that’s amazing, you should’ve seen Ichiro take batting practice. Ichiro hit absolute nukes.

          If Ichiro chose to become a power hitter, he would’ve easily hit 500 bombs.

          2
          Reply
    • gbs42

      1 year ago

      sad,

      The good players wouldn’t be in the game longer, they’d be in MLB longer. NPB still should have a chance to thrive with their best players for several years.

      It’s natural for Americans to be MLB-centric, but there’s a world of baseball fans.

      1
      Reply
      • Gwynning

        1 year ago

        Whilst the NPB has a right to make their rules for their League, they also risk a player revolt of sorts. There’s a scale, and NPB homegrown talent is speaking up about the imbalance now. There’s grumblings for a reason…

        Reply
  7. Rays in the Bay

    1 year ago

    As someone who has lived and worked within the Japanese system and society, I don’t see the higher ups giving in to these demands. Protests and labor battles aren’t really commonplace here, and higher ups always have more power and are stubborn to change.

    The league likely feels that if they reduced the years, all of the best talent would leave for higher salaries sooner leaving the domestic league much weaker and less exciting. I don’t think that’s a very popular sentiment outside of the Players ‘unions’

    Reply
  8. ray1

    1 year ago

    I wouldn’t mind seeing more Ham Fighters in MLB.

    Reply
  9. Clofreesz

    1 year ago

    I would’ve loved to see Ichiro, Ohtani, Hideo Nomo, and Yu Darvish at an early age. Maybe Ichiro could’ve gotten 4,000 hits. Maybe Darvish and Nomo could’ve gotten 3,000 strikeouts. Some of these guys are the real deal, and these new players- Roki Sasaki, Munetaka Murakami, etc.- should be sent earlier to the US so they could get used to facing professional big leaguers before showing off their stuff. Who doesn’t want to go to the MLB and represent your country there?

    1
    Reply

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