Via Jon Heyman: Officials from NPB traveled to the United States this week to discuss changes to the posting system face-to-face with the folks at MLB. They spoke today and are expected to do so again tomorrow, reports Joel Sherman. There is “renewed hope” an agreement will be reached but it is far from a sure thing. The Japanese players’ union agreed to a revised system earlier this month, but MLB withdrew the proposal because NPB took too long to review. Rakuten Golden Eagles right-hander Masahiro Tanaka can not be posted until the two sides hammer this thing out.

In other news, Sang-Soo Kwon reports Samsung Lions closer Seung-Hwan Oh will join the Hanshin Tigers in Japan on a two-year, $8.9M contract. The best closer in the history of the Korea Baseball Organization was considering jumping to MLB via the posting system — the posting agreement with Korea is still valid, only Japan is an issue at the moment — but he apparently decided to head to Japan instead. The Yankees, who are in the market for late-inning bullpen help, were said to be among the teams scouting Oh.

Via George King: The Yankees are among the teams scouting South Korean right-hander Seung-Hwan Oh. He will not be a free agent this winter but is expected to be made available through the posting process. The Yankees are said to have interest in Japanese righty Masahiro Tanaka and Korean righty Suk-Min Yoon as well.

Oh, 31, has spent the last nine years with the Samsung Lions and, aside from injury-riddled 2009 and 2010 seasons, has more or less been the best closer in the Korea Baseball Organization during that time. He had a 1.74 ERA with 54 strikeouts and only ten walks in 51 2/3 innings this summer. His career stats are right here. As for a scouting report, King says Oh’s fastball is “between 94 and 96 mph and he has a splitter that disappears,” which is pretty much all the internet has to offer. There’s some video on YouTube.

Only two Asian relievers (Akinori Otsuka and Shinji Mori) have successfully gone through the posting process and both required six-figure bids. That was a long time ago though (2003 and 2005, respectively), so I’m guessing it’ll cost a couple million to talk to an established dominant closer these days. The track record of relievers coming over from Asia is actually really good and the Yankees need bullpen help, plus it would be neat to see them go outside the box for help with a guy like Oh. Assuming he’s good, of course.