NEW YORK — Infielder Kazuma Okamoto and pitcher Kona Takahashi are entering Major League Baseball’s posting system and will be available for teams to sign as free agents from Friday through Jan. 4.<\/p>\n
They join power-hitting corner infielder Munetaka Murakami, whose 45-day window to sign expires Dec. 22, and right-hander Tatsuya Imai, who can sign through Jan. 2.<\/p>\n
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Okamoto, 29, hit .327 with 15 homers and 49 RBIs in 69 games this year for the Central League’s Yomiuri Giants. He injured his left elbow while trying to catch a throw at first base on May 6 when he collided with the Hanshin Tigers’ Takumu Nakano, an injury that sidelined Okamoto until Aug. 16.<\/p>\n
A six-time All-Star, Okamoto has a .277 average with 248 homers and 717 RBIs in 11 Japanese big league seasons, leading the Central League in home runs in 2020, 2021 and 2023. He homered off Colorado<\/a>‘s Kyle Freeland<\/a> to help Japan beat the U.S. 3-2 in the 2023 World Baseball Classic final.<\/p>\n Takahashi, a right-hander who turns 29 on Feb. 3, was 8-9 with a 3.04 ERA this year for the Pacific League’s Seibu Lions, striking out 88 and walking 41 in 148 innings. He had gone 0-11 with a 3.87 ERA in 2024 after compiling a 22-16 record in the prior two seasons.<\/p>\n Takahashi is 73-77 with a 3.39 ERA in 11 seasons with the Lions.<\/p>\n Under MLB’s posting agreement with Nippon Professional Baseball, the posting fee would be 20% of the first $25 million of a major league contract, including earned bonuses and options. The percentage drops to 17.5% of the next $25 million and 15% of any amount over $50 million. There would be a supplemental fee of 15% of any earned bonuses, salary escalators and exercised options.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK — Infielder Kazuma Okamoto and pitcher Kona Takahashi are entering Major League Baseball’s posting system and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-299271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}