A drafted player decides to play in Japan:
This week, Carter Stewart, a right-hander selected No. 8 overall in the 2018 MLB Draft by the Braves, inked a six-year, $7 million-plus contract to play professionally for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Japanese Pacific League after declining to sign with Atlanta last July and briefly attending a junior college. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic was the first to report Stewart’s choice.
SportingNews.com
Because he’s headed overseas, he will be subject to international signing rules after his contract expires, meaning he’ll hold open market status in MLB at age 25, when the best members of his draft class will still be several years away from free agency. If he’s good enough, that might mean millions of dollars gained compared with his counterparts.
I’m very glad to see this. Japan going after American amateurs would provide some competition for those players and raise their price. The majors over the last 70 years have whittled away the signing power of amateurs, first with bonus baby provisions, then with the draft, then with slot bonuses and international signing limitations. This is the perfect time for foreign major leagues to get good, young MLB talent cheap and build their brands. I hope those leagues become more aggressive in signing talent from the Americas.