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By all accounts, Nippon Ham Fighters right-hander Shohei Otani is the best player in the world not under contract with an MLB team. The Nippon Ham ace is 5-4 with a 2.42 ERA this season. He's fanned 99 in 85 2/3 innings.

Last season Otani set a Nippon Pro Baseball record by hitting 101 mph with his fastball. In Sunday's start, Otani did it again. And again and again and again. In fact, he threw 31 pitches at 99+ mph, which is absurd for a starting pitcher regardless of whether he's pitching in NPB or MLB. Here are those 31 pitches:

According to PitchFX, Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard leads all qualified starters with a 98.0 mph average fastball velocity this season. Yankees righty Nathan Eovaldi is a distant second at 96.8 mph.

Otani is only 21 and what makes him so unique is not only his ability to throw extremely hard. He's also a two-way player who serves as his team's DH on days he doesn't pitch. Otani is hitting .337/.427/.673 with nine homers in 124 plate appearances this season.

If you're looking forward to your favorite team signing Otani, you may have to wait a while. He won't be eligible for international free agency until after the 2021 season, so the Fighters have no real incentive to post him for MLB teams anytime soon.

Under the current posting agreement between MLB and NPB, Nippon Ham will receive the same $20 million release fee whether they post Otani this offseason, next offseason, or four offseasons from now. Might as well hold onto him for a little while longer, right?

(h/t Jason Coskrey)