Kazuma Okamoto to play baseball in the U.S. this offseason? The Giants have begun to accept the posting of the application for the transfer of Kazuma Okamoto to the U.S., because of his “history” with Akinori Sasaki.

The Giants, aiming for their first league title in four years and their first Japanese championship in 12 years, are in second place in the league, trailing last season’s champion Hanshin by 0.5 points (as of January 10). Kazuma Okamoto, 27, who has sat in the No. 4 position in every game since the opening day of the season and has led the batting lineup, was batting .264 with five home runs and 16 runs batted in as of January 10.

It is no secret that Okamoto has long harbored hopes of challenging for a major league contract. At his contract renewal last December, he turned down an offer of a multi-year contract and signed a one-year contract worth 420 million yen at his own request. The earliest Okamoto will be eligible to become an overseas free agent is in the off-season of 2014, but there is a possibility that he will not wait until then and will challenge the U.S. baseball world as early as this off-season by using the posting system. A reporter for the Giants revealed the following.

The Giants have always had a plan to go to the major leagues, but they have never been able to do so. The Giants have always allowed players to go to the Majors only by using their overseas FA rights, but there were two exceptions: Tomoyuki Sugano (34) and Toshi Yamaguchi (36, retired in 2011). Kanno had a special circumstance in that he was a ronin in order to join the Giants, and Yamaguchi had a special circumstance in that it was a condition when he joined the team as an FA from DeNA. But recently we are beginning to see a change in the team’s attitude.

Ace pitcher Shoyuki Togo, 24, has also publicly expressed his desire to try out for the majors in the future, and some reported that he would accept a posting move next offseason.

A big league scout said , “When I talked to Giants officials, they said, ‘We can’t say it’s OK for everyone, but we allow the use of posting. That’s an attitude we’ve never had before.

The Giants’ former allies in the baseball world, who had previously turned down requests for early transfers from such great players as Hideki Matsui (49, retired in 2000) and Koji Uehara (49, retired in 2007), who had moved to the majors from the Giants, are said to have an unavoidable reason for this change in attitude. A reporter in charge of the matter revealed, “Recently, the top amateur players have been moving away.

Recently, we have been getting a lot of questions from the families of top amateur players and people involved with their baseball clubs: ‘My child wants to play in the Majors, but the Giants won’t let him go through the posting process, will they? They have been asking me more and more often. On one occasion, a player was even rejected by the Giants, saying, ‘If you can’t go on the posting process, please refrain from drafting him.

What shocked the Giants was the “refusal” to select Akinori Sasaki (22), who was the centerpiece of the ’19 draft.

After Sasaki submitted his application, all 12 teams met with him before the draft meeting. Sasaki apparently asked the Giants whether or not they could use the posting system to send him to the majors in the future, but the Giants were unable to give an immediate answer on the spot and were effectively told ‘no.'” (The same source)

Although Sasaki was ostensibly “OK’d” by 12 teams, only four teams (Lotte, Seibu, Rakuten, and Nippon-Ham) made bids at the draft conference, which clearly stated that they were OK’d with posting. SoftBank, which has taken a “no” stance on posting, as did the Giants, had no choice but to avoid selecting Sasaki.

When Yoshitomo Tsutsugo (32) made his return to Japanese baseball, he was considered a candidate for the Giants, but ended up returning to his old team, DeNA. The Giants, who have been “losing the battle” on the domestic front, want to avoid at all costs the situation in which they are forced to avoid selecting players they want to keep because they cannot even draw lots to reinforce their lineup in the draft. The “change of course” to allow posting is due to the fact that the Giants have no choice but to accept it.