Ohtani signing won’t be quick

ORLANDO, Fla. — Don’t let your heart rate rise too much too soon over the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes. We’re looking at minimum of 2 ¹/₂ weeks before the fascinating pitcher-outfielder becomes a free agent.

Dan Halem, Major League Baseball’s chief legal officer, said Wednesday at the general managers’ meetings that he hoped to finish negotiations over a new posting deal “soon, maybe within a week.” There is expected to be a renewal of the old terms, by which a major league team must pay the Japanese team $20 million for the rights to the player, for this offseason.

“Any agreement we reach would have to be voted on by our ownership,” Halem explained further. “… Once it’s approved, then it will go in place. And I’m hopeful we’ll have a new system in place in which players can be posted by [Nippon Professional Baseball] in early December.”

While the owners will meet here en masse Thursday morning, Halem said the agreement would not be ready in time for an inperson vote. So the owners will have to sign off on it remotely.

Once a player is posted, he has 30 days to decide his fate, meaning that, if this process goes as smoothly as desired, Ohtani’s decision will come by early January. Because Ohtani, 23, is younger than 2 5, he can make only what teams have to offer in their international bonus pools, as per the terms of MLB’s collective bargaining agreement. The Yankees, for instance, can’t offer Otani more than a $3.25 million signing bonus, giving them the second-highest bonus pool. The Rangers rank first with $3.535 million.

Halem said pace-of-play changes for 2018, which will take place either via collective bargaining or via commissioner Rob Manfred unilaterally implementing them, will ideally be finalized by mid-January “in order to effectively roll them out and explain them to umpires and our clubs.”

Among the changes being discussed, Halem said, are the institution of a pitch clock and limiting mound visits. Also in the mix: Time between innings could be shaved by running a picture-in-picture of a commercial while game action resumes.

Active players have attended bargaining sessions for these changes, Halem said, and he added, “I anticipate that players may be involved in the negotiations in the next few weeks.”

Remember the Apple Watch scandal involving the Red Sox and Yankees? If something like that happens again, Halem said, the team’s entire baseball operations group will be held responsible. Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and (since-fired) manager John Farrell said they weren’t aware of their underlings’ actions.

“Really just to make sure everybody is on the same page,” Halem said of the discussion at the meetings among team officials. “Putting responsibility really on the general manager to ensure that the manager and his coaching staff know that there shall be no electronic devices in the dugout including watches that have the capability to get an internet signal.”

Halem said, in light of the considerable criticism MLB received about its baseballs having extra bounce and being more slippery — and those alleged changes leading to more home runs — the sport will dive deep into the topic.

“It is an issue that has generated a lot of discussion,” Halem said. “So we are thoroughly reviewing the testing process to determine whether changes should be made.”