Bleeding Yankee Blue: THE GIFT THAT COULD KEEP ON GIVING

Monday, December 26, 2016

THE GIFT THAT COULD KEEP ON GIVING

I hope everyone in Yankee Universe got the gift they wished for over the holiday weekend. Shohei Otani, the great Japanese two-way player you've read about here at BYB (Read THE NEXT BABE RUTH) got some nice ones this month, and one of them could lead to a Yuletide blockbuster the next time Santa's sleigh is dropping presents over the Bronx.

Since leading the Ham Fighters to his nation's version of a World Series championship last season, the slugging 22-year-old pitching ace has been selected to his league's All-Star team as both its starting pitcher and designated hitter.

He's also been named to the national team to play in what will likely be the final World Baseball Classic. Not only that, this past week he won his country's highest sports honor -- the Grand Prize at the annual Japan Professional Sports Awards, which has no rough equivalent in this country given the way every media outlet here flings out awards like drunks hurling cheap beaded necklaces at Mardi Gras. Read HERE and HERE and HERE.

However, when MLB recently ratified its new collective bargaining agreement, its terms appeared to drastically limit his earning potential in the States until he turns 25 in 2019; postponing every baseball fan's dream of seeing this latter-day Babe Ruth requesting a release from his team via the posting system to come pitch against the big boys on this side of the pond. But apparently either money isn't everything to this baby-faced stud or the CBA's terms aren't as airtight as some think. Why? Because a few weeks back his team let it be known they would be posting him, paving the way for him to pitch for some team next season.

Dear Santa,

Please let it be one that wears pinstripes and plays on River Avenue...

Subsequent reports cautioned that the announcement of his posting should be taken with a grain of salt because the terms of the CBA wouldn't allow any wriggle room for the kid to get paid what he rightfully deserved in today's market. But as Dave Cameron at Fangraphs recently pointed out, a sign-and-extend type deal is already an established precedent that could be used to get the kid a deal that would make it worth his while to make the move Stateside. Further, that it would be next to impossible to police such an arrangement absent language in the CBA specifically barring such a move.

So if you're like me and struggle between being naughty and nice all year, let's all try extra hard for nice in 2017. And next Christmas, maybe -- just maybe -- Santa might reward us with a big hairy arm and a big hairy bat all wrapped up in one neat package.