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December 21, 2005
The Rundown Runs Corrections
After reading about how Hideki Matsui would have become a free agent if New York hadn’t resigned him by November 15th, I thought that Japanese imports came to America as free agents with the same status as a Johnny Damon or A.J. Burnett. Wrong. They’re bound to their teams for six MLB season just like everyone else, even though they enter the U.S. market as free agents and have several years of experience. Matsui’s impending free agency was a function of his original contract, not the general system. Thus, Akinora Otsuka will only be arbitration-eligible after 2006 and not a free agent as I’d written yesterday.
Posted by Lucas at December 21, 2005 10:12 AM