The Boston Red Sox reached a preliminary agreement with Japanese ace Daisuke Matsuzaka on a US$52 million, six-year contract on Wednesday.
After bidding US$51.11 million just for the right to negotiate with Matsuzaka, the Red Sox completed the most expensive cultural exchange in Major League Baseball history within hours of his landing in Boston.
"Theo and I were still negotiating terms when we arrived," agent Scott Boras said after a long day of talks with general manager Theo Epstein, "We finalized the deal when he arrived in Boston."
The Red Sox had planned to hold a news conference to announce the deal yesterday, a person familiar with the talks said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Matsuzaka gets a US$2 million signing bonus, US$6 million next year, US$8 million in each of the following three seasons and US$10 million in each of the final two years.
The Red Sox won the bidding for Matsuzaka's rights last month, promising to pay the Seibu Lions US$51.11 million if they let him leave for the major leagues. But they had just 30 days -- until midnight yesterday -- to negotiate a contract with Boras or the right-hander would return to Japan and Boston would keep its money.
When talks stalled, the Red Sox brass flew uninvited to Boras' turf in Southern California on Monday to meet with him in person. They said they had to leave on Wednesday, with or without an agreement; Boras has said Matsuzaka would not go to Boston for a physical unless the sides had the makings of a deal.
Boras said the final negotiating session began at about 8:30am and within 90 minutes he was confident there would be an agreement.
"Daisuke really had three choices," Boras said. "He could sign now. He could wait another year or he could wait two years and become a free agent. He had to determine how much money he was willing to give up now."
When Red Sox owner John Henry's plane took off -- with Matsuzaka aboard -- from California, Boston radio stations and Web sites tracked its path as religiously as they had been counting down the minutes to the deadline.
Red Sox chairman Tom Werner, president Larry Lucchino and Epstein were seen coming off the plane with Matsuzaka and Boras.
There were several dozen fans to greet him and about the same number of reporters, many of them Japanese. A radio station distributed signs that pictured two dice and a K -- Matsuzaka's first name is pronounced "Dice-K."
Matsuzaka's agreement includes US$8 million in escalators based on awards that would bring the total to US$60 million over six years and also includes award bonuses. Boras said the deal includes travel from Japan for the player and his family, plus provisions for a trainer, a masseuse, an interpreter, an assistant and housing for spring training and the regular season.
If there had not been a deal, Matsuzaka's rights would have remained with the Lions and he could not have been offered to major league teams again until next November; he is not eligible to become a free agent in Japan until after the 2008 season.
Matsuzaka has a 108-60 record in Japan with a 2.95 ERA and 1,355 strikeouts in 204 games.
RSS