This past week the Texas Rangers made a move that made them the hot topic on sports networks across the country.

The Rangers signed Yu Darvish, from Japan, to a six-year, $60 million dollar contract.

However, that is old news, many know of the deal and the plans to bring Darvish here to Texas but do not know what had to be done behind the scenes.

On top of the six-year, sixty million dollar deal is the $51.7 million dollar “down payment” made to Darvish’s now former team The Nippon Ham Fighters.

The posting system is a baseball player transfer program between Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and the Major League Baseball (MLB) here in the United States. In 1967, the Japanese Player Contract Agreement was created to regulate NPB players transferring to Major League Baseball.

Despite the agreement, problems arose as some NPB teams would lose their top players to the MLB without any compensation as well as little negotiating power on the side of the NPB. To balance out the problems that were exhumed, another agreement was written in 1998 to address both problems.

When an NPB player is “posted,” the MLB then will hold a four-day “silent auction” during which MLB teams can submit silent bids to attain exclusive rights to negotiate with the player for 30 days. At the end of 30 days, if the MLB and the NPB player have come to terms on a contract then the NPB team receives the bid and the player is able to play in the MLB. If no contract agreement is made within 30 days the bid is void and the NPB player’s rights stays with his team.

After the posting fee comes the contract. Darvish’s deal is $56 million guaranteed, but includes $4 million in bonuses. Darvish will earn $5.5 million in 2012, $9.5 million is 2013, $10 million yearly from 2014-2016, and $11 million in 2017.

The 2012 MLB season will begin on March 28 with a two game series between Seattle and Oakland at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. Darvish, will be wearing #11, on April 6, in Arlington against the White Sox.