The Red Sox' scouting and signing of Junichi Tazawa has created a controversy, angering Baseball officials here and in Japan.
The Nippon Pro Baseball league released a statement earlier that was sharply critical of teams that had shown interest in Tazawa, suggesting they had violated a ``gentleman's agreement,'' by signing a Japanese amateur player and labeling their actions ``truly regrettable.'' Last week, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told the New York Times his team considered Tazawa ``hands off.''
Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein insisted his team did nothing that violated any rules or agreements and pointed out that about 50 amateur players - none, admittedly, with as high a profile as Tazawa - had previously signed with major league organizations.
The deal also has met with the approval of Major League Baseball.
``I know the Japanese are upset,'' said Rob Manfred, MLB's executive vice president for labor and human resources. ``They are good business partners of ours and whenever a good business partner is upset, we're concerned about it. Having said that, it was 100-percent clear that there is no such thing as a gentleman's agreement with respect to signing (Japanese) amateur players and there never was.''
Former major league manager Bobby Valentine, who now manages the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan, has been sharply critical of major league team's cherry-picking the best talent from Japan. But even he failed to find fault with the Sox signing Tazawa.
``NPB has refused to step up to the plate to make the NPB benefits and salaries what they should be,'' Valentine wrote in an e-mail, ``so this is the price they have to pay. It might be the wake-up call they need. I have been saying for years that this would happen and it finally has.''
