MIYAKOJIMA, Okinawa Pref. (Kyodo) The Orix Buffaloes will accept the Pacific League's recent ruling to give the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks the right to acquire Jeremy Powell if the PL suspends the right-hander for one year, instead of three months, senior Orix official Katsuhiro Nakamura said Friday.
Nakamura offered the compromise proposal in a meeting with PL Chairman Tadao Koike in an Okinawa hotel three days after he said Orix cannot accept the PL's nonbinding ruling in favor of Softbank and three-month suspension of Powell. Koike declined to respond.
The PL had earlier said the contracts Orix and Softbank insist they agreed on with Powell are both valid but made the move to end a dispute between the two clubs.
"A three-month suspension is too short. It's not acceptable particularly because the two clubs concerned are in the same league," Nakamura said after the meeting.
Nakamura also said he asked the PL to have hearings with Orix and Softbank officials who had contract talks with Powell this offseason, but Koike again gave no response.