Orix Buffaloes team representative Toshio Hatatani said Tuesday the club will file an appeal to the Japanese baseball commissioner's office over the Softbank Hawks' signing of right-hander Jeremy Powell.
Orix has decided to take its case to commissioner Yasuchika Negoro after refusing to accept a resolution from the Pacific League to give Softbank the right to acquire Powell.
The PL has said the contracts Orix and Softbank insist they agreed on with Powell are both valid.
"Since the Pacific League president's ruling has not changed, we have no other option but to appeal," Hatatani said after a PL directors meeting. "If both contracts are supposedly valid, then Softbank should be reprimanded that we should be given precedence."