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Major League Baseball owners ratified the new posting system with Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball and announced that Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani will be posted Friday by the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. 

Breathe a deep sigh here. Finally. Ohtani is posted and MLB teams can now officially negotiate with him and his agents to sign to play baseball stateside. Upon initial posting, there's a 21-day window for negotiation, so Ohtani will sign on Dec. 22 at 11:59 p.m. ET at the latest. 

Again, finally. We have firm details. 

Ohtani, 23, throws 100 mph -- right-handed -- on the mound and swings a good bat from the left side at the plate. As we've heard for months (years, really), he plans to both pitch in a rotation and play nearly everyday in the lineup, whether that's in the outfield or at designated hitter. 

Ohtani battled injury last season, but it wasn't major and he finished the year healthy. He hit .332/.403/.540 with 16 doubles and eight homers in 65 games. He only made five starts, pitching to a 3.20 ERA with 29 strikeouts in 25 1/3 innings. 

His full-season lines in 2016: 

  • .322/.416/.588, 18 doubles, 22 homers, 67 RBI, 65 runs, seven steals in 382 plate appearances
  • 10-4, 1.86 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 174 strikeouts, 45 walks, four complete games, one shutout in 140 innings  

He's a special talent for sure, but it's never a guarantee everything is going to translate once he transitions to the majors. 

Ohtani is leaving Japan too early to avoid international bonus pool spending, so he can't make even $4 million upon signing. Many teams can't go higher than $300,000, so it's all about the sales pitch here. Kind of like recruiting at the collegiate level, in a way. 

Ohtani's case is grandfathered under the old posting system, so teams will spend up to $20 million (it'll be exactly that for the "winning" team) in order to negotiate with him, and that fee goes to the Ham Fighters. 

The new agreement, which will apply starting next offseason, includes the following (via MLB official press release): 

The term of the new agreement will be November 1, 2018 through October 31, 2021.

Effective November 1, 2018, the release fee that Major League Clubs will pay a posted player's former NPB Club will be as follows:

  • For Major League contracts with a total guaranteed value of $25 million or less, the release fee will be 20% of the total guaranteed value of the contract;
  • For Major League contracts with a total guaranteed value between $25,000,001 and $50 million, the release fee will be: (i) 20% of the first $25 million of total guaranteed value (i.e., $5 million) plus (ii) 17.5% of the total guaranteed value exceeding $25 million;
  • For Major League contracts with a total guaranteed value of $50,000,001 or more, the release fee will be: (i) 20% of the first $25 million of total guaranteed value (i.e., $5 million) plus (ii) 17.5% of the total guaranteed value between $25,000,001 and $50 million (i.e., $4,375,000) plus (iii) 15% of the total guaranteed value exceeding $50 million;
  • For Major League contracts that contain bonuses, salary escalators or options (Club, mutual or vesting), the Club may owe a supplemental release fee at a later date equal to 15% of any bonuses or salary escalators actually earned by the player under his contract, and/or 15% of any compensation paid to the player in Club, mutual or vesting option years that were exercised or vested; and
  • For Minor League contracts, the release fee will be a flat 25% of the signing bonus. (For Minor League contracts of "Foreign Professionals" that contain Major League terms, a supplemental release fee will be owed if the player is added to the 25-man roster).

The annual window during which NPB players can be posted will be shortened to November 1st through December 5th.

All other material terms of the prior protocol agreement, including the 30-day negotiating window once a player has been posted, remain the same.

Now let the recruiting of Ohtani begin!