In Japan they used to have a rule that said you needed to play 9 seasons in NPB before you could become a free agent. There were 2 people who skirted the rule using the same agent and loophole to get out of their 9 year commitments: Hideo Nomo and Alfonso Soriano. Now they've refined the process to include the posting system, but even Darvish had to put in 7 seasons before he could get out.
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