With just a few hours to spare before a self-imposed deadline Tuesday night, Major League Baseball, the Major League Baseball Players Association and Nippon Pro Baseball (NPB) came to an agreement that will allow the system of “posting” NPB players so they can play for MLB teams.
Obviously, the urgency behind revising this system was the interest of Japanese star pitcher/hitter Shohei Ohtani in coming to MLB for the 2018 season, and the great interest from many MLB teams in signing him.
(Incidentally, I have decided to change the way I spell his name from “Otani” to “Ohtani” to reflect the way it is spelled not only in most articles I’ve read, but to match what’s on his Japanese jersey.