MLB Roundup 11/27: Shohei Ohtani wants to hear what you can do for him

Shohei Ohtani gives MLB teams a homework assignment

As MLB, the Players Association and the NBP have all agreed on a new posting system, the biggest star in Japanese baseball, Shohei Ohtani, is set to come over to the states. As we’ve mentioned before, the new international signing rules limit his earning power and teams can only spend whatever they have left in their signing pool to sign the star two-way player. For the Red Sox, that means they can only offer less than one million dollars. No team will be able to offer Ohtani nearly what he’s worth, but the Red Sox are in a worse position than most. That being said, it’s clear that money isn’t the primary motivation for Ohtani, so he’s asked teams around the league to send him a written report with everything the team can offer him. This is an unconventional move for free agents, but it’s been a long time since we’ve had a free agent as unique as Ohtani. As for what Boston should be telling Ohtani they can offer....well, we’ll get to that later today.

Doug Fister signs a one-year deal in Texas

The Red Sox got shockingly solid contributions from Doug Fister in 2017 and he was a big reason they were able to stay at the top of their division despite a big injury to David Price. With everyone healthy, Boston didn’t really have a clear spot for Fister in 2018, but there were enough health questions that it would have made sense for them to discuss a new deal with the veteran righty. It was never overly realistic, though, and those dreams have died early in the offseason. In a winter that has been starving for big news, Fister is the first “splash” of the free agent market. The righty has signed a one-year deal with the Rangers worth $4 million. The deal also has a team option for a second year. This is the only kind of price I can see the Red Sox spending on starting pitching help considering how much depth they already have in place, but if they do want to bring in more major-league depth, they’ll have to look elsewhere now. At the moment, Fister slots right into the middle of Texas’ rotation.