Kevin Millar not in Nagoya Just Yet

The rejected waiver claim is a formality to open more negotiations. Some interesting quotes from Millar in Saturday's Boston Globe.

- "There's no doubt about it, I would love to play in Boston," Millar said. "Hopefully, this can all work out without hurting any people or relationships."

"I feel terrible because you always want to stick to your agreements," he said. "But then this came up, and I told [Chunichi] that the Red Sox were one of the teams in the United States I always wanted to play for. It would be a dream to play in Fenway Park on Opening Day."

I don't think he'll ever touch ground at Narita.

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Hopefully the Red Sox can work out an agreement with all parties. MLB is monitoring the situation so anything can happen.

I have been looking at all the articles about Millar and this whole deal. I think that he will stay here in U.S. and play with Boston. I really hope he does, then I can watch him every day and cheer him on!

Millar will be a Dragon. MLB has already said that he is under contract to Chunichi and thus the Dragons would have to post him in order for the Red Sox to acquire him. And Chunichi owner Junnosuke Nishikawa says that he will not give Millar to the BoSox. End of story.

This whole fiasco makes me want to hurl. Kevin Millar needs to make up his damn mind. First he wants to play for the Dragons, and now he wants to play for the Red Sox. Which is it Millar?

He has 6.4 million reasons for joining Chunichi, so he better honor his original contract and get his butt ready for spring training which starts in less than 2 weeks.

He reminds me of Bill Parcells. They both live by that classic song by the Clash, "Should I Stay or Should I Go?"

BTW, the Japanese media is pronouncing Millar's name as "Miller" but it's actually pronounced "Mi-Lar."

I don't think Millar is the one to blame in this situation. I put the fault (if there is any) on the Marlins, who really were doing nothing unusual just looking out for their own best interest (i.e. $$$$$).

Here is what can be reasonably assumed as facts garnered from the press before Chunichi even entered the picture.

1. Millar is up for arbitration which would increase his value.
2. Marlins are not big on spending money.
3. Red Sox are really interested in Millar.
4. While Millar is not technically under contract, Marlins own his rights preventing Millar from choosing his next employer.

For what ever reasons, the Marlins and Red Sox cannot come to terms over a deal for Millar - which is probably the best case scenario for all involved. Instead the Marlins accept money from Chunichi for the rights to sign Millar, at which point Millar is basically down to two choices:

1. sign with the Dragons for a nice amount of money or
2. stay where you are not wanted and accept less money and less playing time.

Obviously he chooses the first point, then he has to go through waivers (which seems backwards to me) and finds that there was a third alternative that was not available until he chose the first, and would not have been available if he chose the second. Which leaves us with a player movement mess and hurt feelings on all sides.

What can be done to fix this? Well an overhaul of the MLB aribitration and contract system would stop the dumping of players, and better management-ownership in Florida would help. They probably could've gotten more than they did for Cliff Floyd - wouldn't have been hard. Also a wide-spanning and in-depth agreement between NPB and MLB regarding player movement. I know they have one now, but this kind of occurence helps illustrate its flaws.

I don't think the posting system is applicable here because the Japanese players being posted are being posted with their consent and not being backed into a corner and out of town. Not that Chunichi hasn't been more than generous with their offer. So here are my suggestions.

1. Short term - quick fix: If you are posting a player who still has to go through waivers, once the bid amount is agreed, to send the player through waivers before contract negotiations begin. If he is claimed and agrees to a contract, the claiming team pays the bid you would have recieved from over seas.
2. Long term - Conditional free agency as an alternative to arbitration/posting. If a player wishes to cross seas or a team wants to sell a player's rights, allow the player to negotiate as a free agent. Once terms are agreed to, the signing team must pay the former team 10 or 20% of the contract value. The former team could also reserve the right to reject the offer.

Obviously this would have to be more detailed with safe guards and such but, since the Marlins were just trying to purge payroll anyways, it isn't any worse than what is already occuring. Plus Japanese teams would get a bonus of posting while allowing their players the ability to choose their new teams unlike Seibu who will miss out on Kaz's potential posting bid.

Kevin Millar's agent should have been aware of the maneuverings of both the Marlins and Red Sox, as well as any other team.

I'm sure Millar's agent knew the manueverings, but the Marlins, for whatever reason, were not going to trade Millar to Red Sox, and had he not signed with Chunichi, he would have never gone to waivers and been available to Boston.

As far as I know, the only agent that has found a way to circumvent MLBs player rights rules is Scott Boras, and that was only for the draft. He's yet to be able to escape the reserve clause.

This choice is not up to Millar. It's the owners/GM's and MLB who will make the final decision(s). Millar is a gamer -- fans love him and players love him. He's 600 at bats away from being a major star in Boston or Japan.

Kevin Millar has had a tough time and it is not his fault! First the Marlins said that no one wanted him, and that's why he wanted to go to Japan. No one wanted him. But the Marlins were wrong! Boston wanted him and Millar wanted to go to Boston! If the Marlins didn't say that no one wanted him, everything would be normal and there would be nothing going on. I think that Millar should be able to decide what team to go to!

It is funny after the agonizing that NPB followers have been going through the past few years with "talent" going to MLB, that, for a change, MLB and the Red Sox are wrestling over Millar coming to Japan.