It took awhile to figure out what was going on since the original story was pretty poor. Basically noted by “Dave” in the comments.
“When the coaches and players all agreed to their contracts, playing in Japan wasn’t part of the deal. MLB is having them do extra work to make MLB more money, it’s perfectly reasonable for them to expect compensation. It’s MLB’s responsibility to pay both the players AND coaches for this, suggesting that the players should pay the coaches for them is ridiculous.”
Japan has been playing BB for a long time and American teams traveling to Japan to play a game is fine. Last week, both the Dodger and Padres were in China playing two games.
MLB is trying to expand its market and the players (employees) should not be paying for MLB marketing costs. The MLB if it wants coaches to go along should pay them.
But the flip side is playing in Asian would open up endorsement marketing opportunities for the star players and an inside tract for the marginal players to continue their careers.