Just like their counterparts in Major League Baseball, players in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball are facing various labor disputes within their league. Evan Drellich of The Athletic explored some of the current topics of discussion in detail in a column published this morning.
Some of the fights are over things like endorsement rights, but for MLB, most fans will probably be interested to know that players are fighting for earlier free agent designation, which could allow some of them to move to North America sooner.
As Drellich explains, there are two different forms of free agency for NPB players. A player can enter national free agency after seven or eight years in the league, depending on whether he was drafted straight out of high school or college. With this right, a player has the option to sign with another NPB club. However, to achieve full international free agency and be able to sign with an MLB club, it takes nine years.
The Japan Professional Baseball Players Association is seeking to reduce both numbers to six years, the same length of service required for MLB players to become free agents. A source told Drellich that the league is willing to offer a reduction for domestic free agents, but not for international free agents, although the full details of that offer are not public.
NPB players are often made available to MLB clubs before those nine years are up through the posting system. Under that system, the player’s NPB club posts them to MLB clubs, opening a 45-day negotiation window. If a player signs with an MLB club during that time, the NPB club receives a posting fee based on the size of the contract the player received from the MLB club. Larger deals, of course, result in higher posting fees. In one extreme example, the Dodgers signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto In addition to signing him to a 12-year, $325 million contract in the offseason, they also had to pay nearly $51 million to the Orix Buffaloes, the NPB team that signed him.
Although Yamamoto was able to advance to the major leagues at the relatively young age of 25, other pitchers often have to wait longer. Shota ImanagaFor example, he was only listed last offseason and signed with the Cubs. He was active as a pitcher in parts of eight NPB seasons through 2023, but still hasn’t been a full international free agent. At 30 years old, he is now in his first MLB season.
There is also no guarantee that a player will be made available through the posting system. Kodai Senga had to reach full international free agency before entering the major leagues because his NPB club, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, has a team policy against posting its players. Senga signed with the Mets for 2023, which was his 30th season.
If the rules change, future players in a similar position to Imanaga or Senga could move to North America a few years earlier. That would increase their earning potential in several ways. Teams clearly value youth, as evidenced by the huge guarantee Yamamoto received. Senga and Imanaga received guarantees of $75 million and $53 million, respectively. That may be partly because the Dodgers viewed Yamamoto as more talented, but it’s also safe to assume that he wouldn’t have received as much money if he had entered his 30th season like Senga and Imanaga.
Aside from the age factor, if a player can reach full free agency at a young age, not requiring a transfer fee could mean more money goes directly to the player. The Cubs were willing to give Imanaga $53 million guaranteed, but also paid $9.825 million to the Yokohama BayStars, his NPB club. In theory, this willingness to spend over $60 million on Imanaga could have resulted in that amount going directly to him when he was a free agent, rather than the BayStars getting a large cut.
There is nothing in Drellich’s article that suggests that there will be changes to the system that would affect younger players, such as Sasaki Roku. Yamamoto was made available to MLB clubs shortly after he turned 25, a notable age because that is when international players are no longer considered “amateurs” under MLB rules. Before he turns 25, players are subject to the international bonus pool system, which gives each team approximately $4 million to $8 million in player bonuses. Generally speaking, teams in small markets receive larger pools and clubs in large markets receive smaller ones.
Therefore, if a player wants to make the switch before turning 25, he is limited to a relatively modest bonus. For example: Shohei Ohtani left the NPB and signed with the Angels before his 23rd season. He only received a $2.3 million signing bonus at the time, obviously far less than what Yamamoto received when he waited until his 25th birthday.
Sasaki, who doesn’t turn 23 until November, could be in a similar situation to Ohtani. He turns 23 in November and there have been rumors that he could be called up in the offseason. If that happens, he could only secure a small signing bonus of a few million dollars and there are no signs of that changing.
So whether or not Sasaki is used this winter is another question, but it could still be a notable change if the JPBPA is able to change the rules for free agents. In the future, players as talented as Imanaga or Senga could have the chance to move to Major League Baseball a few years earlier than under the current system, which could be a nice development for both the players and the fans who want to see the best players in North America compete against each other.
Perhaps it is due to the limitations of the current system that another young Japanese player, Rintaro Sasakichose to play college football in the U.S. rather than enter the NPB Draft. While NPB clubs may not be thrilled about losing control over their players, they may also recognize that loosening the reins could reduce the likelihood of other players skipping the NPB altogether.
Whether the JPBPA will be successful remains to be seen. The system is not entirely analogous to the dynamic between MLB and MLBPA. As Drellich points out, the collective bargaining agreement does not have a set deadline like in North America, but is an ongoing and ongoing negotiation. It is also a complicated legal matter involving Japanese antitrust laws, and the JPBPA will file a lawsuit challenging the NPB’s reserve system sometime this year. Fans interested in all the details of the negotiations are encouraged to read the entire article.
