MLB has proposed "limiting the amount its teams could bid for Japanese players," according to a source cited by Bill Shaikin of the L.A. TIMES. Under the proposal, if "multiple teams bid the capped amount, the player would get to choose the team with which he would negotiate." In theory, that could represent "a step toward helping teams with less revenue bid on fairer footing with large-market teams." There would be "no cap on the contract between the Japanese player and an MLB team" (LATIMES.com, 12/2). In Japan, Jack Gallagher writes it "doesn’t look too good" when Nippon Professional Baseball sends Dir of Baseball Operations Nobuhisa Ito to "negotiate with a monolith like MLB, then he comes back and blames the other side for a deal not being reached." Gallagher: "Being embarrassed on the international stage is definitely not cool, but is it just me, or are the NPB folks completely oblivious? Just a shrug of the shoulders like we so often see in this country." Meanwhile, the clock "keeps ticking" and P Masahiro Tanaka’s future "hangs in the balance." It almost "makes you wonder if the dithering is not intentional, so it gets to the point where Tanaka says, 'OK. I will just stay in Japan for another year'" (JAPAN TIMES, 12/3).
