An indecent proposal

Yomiuri Giants “owner” Shoichi Oikawa revealed to various media sources Wednesday that Nippon Professional Baseball’s owners are negotiating two options for a revised posting system with Major League Baseball. Both systems will look to base team compensation on a percentage of what players earn in signing bonuses, incentives, salary that would eliminate NPB teams’ ability to select the amount of money they want in exchange for posted players.

The two proposals, according to Oikawa are:

A: 15 percent of all money paid to a player

or

B: 15 percent of all money paid to a player up to $100 million. Over $100 million, the posting fee would be $20 million.

Under these conditions, established pros under 25 who are considered amateurs under the majors’ new CBA could be had for peanuts. The Nippon Ham Fighters, the last team to reap a huge posting fee (around $50 million for Yu Darvish) would be shafted out of the $20 million that would be on the table for Shohei Otani now and instead receive around $1 million — because the PL’s 2016 MVP is an “amateur.”

Should these pass, it will put NPB one step closer to being a minor league for MLB, with NPB teams forced to accept terms that no MLB owner would ever consider.