The Red Sox bid $42 million for the right to negotiate with prized Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, sources told ESPN's Peter Gammons. Boston's bid far exceeded any other team's offer.
Matsuzaka will learn Tuesday whether the Seibu Lions have accepted a bid for him by a major league team.
Major League Baseball and the Japanese commissioner's office will make simultaneous announcements at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday (10 a.m. Tokyo time Wednesday), MLB spokesman Pat Courtney said Monday at the big league general managers' meetings.
The amount of the highest bid was forwarded by the major league commissioner's office to the Japanese commissioner's office last Wednesday, and the Lions have until Tuesday to accept. Only if the offer is accepted will the identity of the winning team be revealed.
Matsuzaka, a right-hander who pitched for Japan's World Baseball Classic champions, is considered among the top prospects available this offseason.
If the Lions accept the top bid, the winning bidder has 30 days to reach an agreement with Matsuzaka. If a deal cannot be reached, he would return to the Lions for the 2007 Japanese baseball season and the bid will not be paid.
There are three reasons the deal would make sense for the Red Sox:
• Talent evaluators who have seen Matsuzaka say he's a top of the rotation-quality pitcher who would improve the Red Sox staff.
• If Boston signs him it would effectively plant a Red Sox flag in the growing Far East market.
• By merely winning the bidding the Red Sox would block the Yankees from acquiring Matsuzaka. By signing him, they would gain the same kind of advantage the Yankees gained when they signed Johnny Damon away from Boston.
