The anticipation of Shohei Otani making his MLB debut in 2018 inched closer to becoming reality when a reported agreement was struck to extend the guidelines of the posting system with Nippon Professional Baseball for another year.
Doing so would allow Otani’s club, the Nippon-Ham Fighters, to receive a maximum of $20 million in a posting fee for their star player. Assuming Otani was to sign a contract with a Major League team, they would then make the payment to the Fighters.
While the agreement was a step in the right direction, it required final approval from the MLB Players Association.