Report: New CBA rules could be changed for Otani

Shohei Otani is so good he might end up causing Major League Baseball to bend some of its rules.

Baseball's new collective bargaining agreement raised the international signing age to 25 years old, meaning that the 22-year-old Japanese sensation would likely have to wait until 2019 in order to move to MLB. That could be rectified if Otani wants to move sooner, though, as sources told Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports that the league would consider changing the rules to bring the pitcher/designated hitter state-side sooner.

"There are ways it could happen," an anonymous MLB official told Passan. "I don't think there is any reason if an international superstar wants to play here we stop it."

Report: New CBA could push Otani's MLB debut to 2019

One possible way to clear a path for Otani would be through some form of changes to the current posting system between MLB and Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. Under the old system, the posted player's NPB team receives a maximum posting fee of $20 million from the MLB team that signs the player; if the player goes unsigned over the 30-day posting period he's returned to his Japanese club.

It's unknown if the posting agreement changed as part of baseball's new CBA.

Whether the posting procedure has changed or not, the consensus seems to be that if Otani wants to come to the United States before he turns 25 and there's enough money to make everybody happy, he'll be in a big-league uniform sooner rather than later.

"When the interests of all 5 parties (the player, NPB, MLB, the MLB team, and the MLB Players' Association) are aligned things get worked out," another anonymous MLB executive told Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

Otani gained notoriety this year for his abilities as a two-way player with the Nippon Ham Fighters, posting a 1.86 ERA as a starter while slashing .322/.416/.588 in 323 at-bats en route to winning the Japanese League MVP.