Interesting that the request for postings is not binding, kind of like asking waivers.

So the A's were the only fail after a successful bid.

2: Evidence at the time suggested that they weren't bargaining "in good faith".

3 — That seemed to be the agent's spin, but it seemed like the contract request was way out of line with those of prior posted players. Usually, a posted player signs for about the same as the posting fee, but if I recall correctly, Iwakuma's agent wanted multiples of the posting fee.

This looks to happen a misunderstanding on my part. I thought Nomura's request was including the posting fee - I'm no longer sure that that's the case.

For the two or three out there who are curious ... the following is based on my understanding of the negotations, which may be mistaken (thus calling into question my #3, but bear with me).

But first, here's a history of successful posts:



Oakland's winning bid was (reportedly) 19.1 million.
AFAICT, Oakland initially offered 4/15.1 and may have been as willing to go as high as 4/16.9. My understanding had been that Nomura wanted Oakland's commitment to be 4/48 - or 4/28.9M to the pitcher. (This would still be on the high side, in comparison to the Matsuzaka and Igawa deals, but Iwamura was known to be a tougher get going in - the winner should've expected the bid to be a bit less than the contract proper in this instance). I now think Nomura's supposed ask of 12M per for 4 years was exclusive of the posting fee - which is a whole different ball of wax.