December 11, 2006

Mets might gain the rights to Matsuzaka

Anthoney De Rosa at Hotfoot, writes about the possibility that the Mets might gain the negotiation rights to Matsuzaka:

The Sons Of Sam Horn Wiki, which is one of the most well respected Red Sox websites around, even frequented by the Red Sox owner as well as Curt Schilling, has a copy of the rules and procedures of the Japanese Player contract agreement.The interesting part of the agreement is the paragraph below, which is section 13...

(13) The U.S. Commissioner shall have the authority to oversee the bidding procedures set forth in paragraphs (8) through (12) above to ensure that they not been undermined in any manner. Among other actions that he may deem appropriate and in the best interests of baseball, the U.S. Commissioner shall have the authority to revoke a U.S. Major League Club’s exclusive negotiation rights with respect to a Japanese Player (and, subject to the Japanese Club’s approval pursuant to paragraph (11) above, to award such rights to the next highest bidder, if any) and to declare null and void any contract between a Japanese Player and a U.S. major League Club that the U.S. Commissioner deems was the result of conduct that was inconsistent with this Agreement or otherwise not in the best interests of professional baseball.

Very interesting. So if the Red Sox were to fail to come to an agreement with Matsuzaka, which seems very likely at this time according to ESPN, the commissioner would have it in his power to award the rights to negotiate with him to the Mets, who were the next highest bidder. Stay tuned folks, this might get interesting.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think there is a major caveat to your proposal. the last sentence says a lot. "...U.S. Commissioner deems was the result of conduct that was inconsistent with this Agreement or otherwise not in the best interests of professional baseball." There has been no reports of any bad faith negotiations or anything done that was not in the "best interests" in baseball. I think it is a long shot that Mats' rights are awarded to any other team.

John Young said...

I agree with your statement. However there is still a shot in the dark that we could land him, so it is worth mentioning.

I'm not saying I'm holding my breath for this deal to get done.

Completely the opposite.

On a slow news day, you post what
is out there.