<figure id="attachment_287918" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-287918" style="width: 2677px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ad165fe7"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/01/2022082209537.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-287918" class="wp-caption-text">Kohei Arihara is set to return to the Japanese baseball world (Photo: Getty)</figcaption></figure>
 On January 5, SoftBank acquired Kohei Arihara, 30, from the Rangers&#8217; 3A affiliate in the United States.
 The amount is said to be 1.5 billion yen over three years. Softbank had made major reinforcements this offseason, including Osuna of Lotte for 700 million yen and Kensuke Kondo of Nichiham, who is said to be under contract for 7 years and 5 billion yen. And now they have added Ariwara as an ace candidate to replace Kota Senga, who is moving to the major leagues.
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 Ariwara was drafted first overall by Nippon Ham in 2002 and won 60 games in six years, including 15 wins in 2007. In 2008, he was traded to the Rangers via the posting system, but he suffered from a series of injuries and won only three games in two years.
 Arihara&#8217;s move to the Rangers has been met with boos from within and outside the baseball world. The point of contention, however, does not seem to be with Softbank, which has been pursuing a &#8220;blockbuster reinforcement&#8221; plan. The reporter continues.
 SoftBank suffered a loss of victory last season that would go down in the history of the team. Since their ace, Senga, was out of the lineup, it was a given that they would look to strengthen their starting lineup. The problem is that Arihara chose Softbank, which is in the same league, instead of his old team, Nichi-Ham.
 Currently, there is no rule that a player who has moved to the Majors by posting must return to his old team in Japan. However, I think it is a breach of faith for a player to be transferred to another team in the same league after only two years. It is possible that there will be cases in the future where this system will be used as a loophole.
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 At the same time, on January 5, Senga&#8217;s post on social networking sites attracted a lot of attention. She stated (now deleted) that although she had applied for posting five or six years ago, she had been unable to get a meeting with a baseball team to discuss the matter. A source from a Tokyo-based baseball team said, &#8220;Posting is not an option for the team.
 A source from a Tokyo-based baseball team said, &#8220;Posting has a great disadvantage in that it greatly reduces the strength of the team&#8217;s own forces. Not only that, but if a team&#8217;s main player might be transferred to a rival team in the same league after only two years, there is a possibility that some teams would be reluctant to accept the idea of posting. It is not clear to what extent Nichi-Ham was involved in the acquisition of Arihara, but at 1.5 billion yen for three years, it is possible that they avoided the money game. In the future, there will probably be cases like Senga&#8217;s where the player will be &#8220;kept in captivity.
 One of the advantages of posting for a baseball team is the transfer fee. When posting Arihara, Nichi-Ham received about 130 million yen in transfer fees. However, this is far short of the 2.3 billion yen received by Shohei Otani and the 2.1 billion yen received by Masanao Yoshida, and does not mean that Japan Ham received a large amount of money for their services. The reporter noted that &#8220;the Japanese baseball world will be in a state of flux within three years.
 I think it is necessary to set a rule that if a player returns to Japanese baseball within three years, his former team has priority in signing him&#8230;etc. Basically, overseas transfers are not a good idea for a player. Basically, overseas transfers should become more active for the sake of players. If teams are afraid of cases like this one, and the acceptance of posting itself declines, there will be nothing to be gained.
 Perhaps it is time for new rules to be established.

 On January 5, SoftBank acquired Kohei Arihara, 30, from the Rangers' 3A affiliate in the United States. The amount is said to be 1.5 billion yen over 3 years. Softbank

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