It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Otani after the season, especially with the injury.
Two reasons why the Fighters might bring him back in 2018:
- his injury will most likely keep his salary next year down
- the fans might want one last chance to see him play out a full season in the NPB
Still, if Otani wants to go, I’m sure the Fighters will allow it.
As for Otani being leverage for posting system negotiations… I’m not so sure if that will be the case because the MLB is apparently interested in laying down the foundation for a unified global posting system. So instead of having individual systems for various countries/league, there would be one system that works for all countries/leagues.