What is a loaded free agent starting pitching market could receive a late-entry to the off-season party this week. The Hiroshima Carp is expected to post RHP Kenta Maeda.
The team announced last Friday that Maeda would be posted and the paperwork is expected to be filed with Major League Baseball in the coming week.
It’s unknown if the Cubs will agree to pay the $20 million release fee for the right to negotiate a contract with Kenta Maeda, the 27-year old Japanese right-hander and two-time Sawamura Award winner.
Under the agreement Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball reached two years ago, the NPB club may not set the release fee at an amount higher than $20 million and the fee cannot be changed once it has been set by the NPB club.