The posting system has cost some major league teams a lot of money in recent years. The Texas Rangers bid $51.7 million to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters in order to negotiate with Yu Darvish. They then had to pay Yu's former team when they came to an agreement on a six year contract worth $56 million. In addition to Yu Darvish, the bidding system has brought Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka to the MLB.
The Dodgers will only have 30 days to negotiate the contract for Ryu Hyun-jin. There may be a sense of urgency for the Dodgers. General manager, Ned Colletti, said, "We have watched Ryu pitch for a long time and he is another option to consider as we look to improve our team in 2013 and beyond." The Dodgers have not been shy when it comes to international players. In June they agreed to a seven year $42 million dollar deal with Cuban player, Yasiel Puig. The Dodgers have also talked to Japanese high-school pitcher Shohei Otani.
Final Thought
Although there is obvious risk in signing a player to a long term, high value contract when they have no Major League Experience, it could be worth it. When signing international players, there is an added value to having them on your team outside of the talent they bring. International players have been known to bring a following with them. This following is the country that they come from. Many players are representing their country when they play in the Major Leagues. It can be very valuable for teams to acquire international players because of the extra attention that they can get. It is not likely that high value bids for international players will go away any time soon.
@dmrosen7
First off, I like the new Twitter bird lol. Second, the I-95 SportsBiz crew should pool their money together to buy a Japanese league team so that we can sell our players for a ridiculous profit to the ever-so greedy United States. What can go wrong!?
ReplyDeleteAnother two points: 1) A 25 year old 7 time all-star is impressive no matter what league you play in. 2) Let's all remember that Kei Igawa's posting fee was $26 million, just saying :).
ReplyDeleteI was actually getting sick of the old twitter bird so this one is in a trial period of being my official twitter bird. I agree that we should get a Japanese team. All it would take is one player to be great for it to pay off!.... maybe. 7 time all-star is certainly impressive but as you mentioned with Kei Igawa... you never truly know what you are getting.
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