Teams have exclusive negotiating rights with their own free agents until midnight Nov. 11.
The player's team has all the negotiating rights to the exclusive player.
The group plans to make a payment for exclusive negotiating rights.
By common consent, exclusive negotiating rights were, in effect, ceded to former clubs.
They also spent $5.329 million on the posting fee, which as the highest bidder to his Japanese team gave them exclusive negotiating rights.
Major league teams can then submit blind, multimillion-dollar bids to gain exclusive negotiating rights with him.
Their 1998 teams no longer have exclusive negotiating rights.
Regarding the draft, the union says it serves no purpose except to limit the negotiating rights to one team for new players.
The team that bids the highest will get exclusive negotiating rights for 30 days.
The Yankees bid $26 million to win Igawa's negotiating rights.
