Angels pursuit of Teruaki Sato just became much more complicated

This offseason was always going to be an odd one for the Los Angeles Angels. The transition of power from Arte Moreno to Stan Kroenke will hopefully go as smoothly as possible. Still, because Kroenke can't officially take over until early Spring, it will almost certainly provide some bumps in the road.

Fans are hoping that with the odd dynamic, the Angels will still spend on star free agents this offseason. One player who has been linked to the club a few times already this offseason is Japanese star infielder Teruaki Sato.

For MLB teams to sign a player from Japan, the two leagues agreed on a posting system. The player's team in Japan agrees to post the player, opening a 45-day window for all teams in MLB to negotiate and try to sign the player. If the team that signs the player also sends a posting fee to the NBP team, and if they don't sign, they go back to Japan. Normally, that 45-day window is enough, but this offseason, that just shrank for some players, including Sato.

The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reported that MLB and NPB decided not to pause the posting window due to the lockout, as they did back in the 2020-'21 offseason. That means players who were already posted, and players who will be posted, only have until the date of the lockout, December 1, to sign. In the '20-'21 offseason, the posting window was paused by the lockout and resumed once it ended.

The Angels have even less time to get their ducks in a row for Teruaki Sato

The window for the three players posted yesterday, one of whom was Sato, has shrunk to 30 days. That means the opportunity to sign them has become even more frenzied than the 45-day window does. Of course, on top of this shortened window, the Angels are dealing with the transition of power, which not only includes the ownership but also an interim GM who seems very unlikely to be returning.

Sato won the Triple Crown in Japan's Central League this season. The 27-year-old (who will be 28 by the start of next season) hit .306 with 39 home runs and 106 RBIs to take home the prestigious honor. He also added 40 doubles and had a .991 OPS.

Fans were hoping that the money the new ownership group had meant the Angels would be able to get in, and potentially win, the sweepstakes for the prized slugger. Now, they have to deal with communications from a new owner to the old one for decisions to be made; now they have to deal with a shortened window to try to sign the player.

This offseason is going to be complicated for everyone, with teams having less than 30 days to get everything figured out before the lockout. The Angels have the extra special scenario of a change in ownership to deal with, too. This just becomes the cherry on top for a player the Angels have been heavily linked with.

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