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Kevin Millar did not report to the Chunichi Dragons' training camp earlier this month. (Alan Diaz/AP)

Millar was placed back on the 40-man roster of the Florida Marlins.

Announcement of Millar's immediate destination was made soon after Major League Baseball officials, who spent days trying to mediate the dispute between the career .296 hitter and the Japanese club, hammered out a resolution.

In exchange for dropping its claim to Millar, who had a change of heart after signing a two-year contract to play in Japan, Chunichi will receive a cash settlement of an undisclosed amount.

At the very least, Chunichi presumably must get back the $1.2 million it paid the Marlins for the rights to Millar.

Millar thereafter agreed to a two-year, $6.2 million agreement, at the same time agreeing to reject any other ML team which tried to claim him off the waiver list.

Undaunted, the Red Sox put in a claim, and remained in pursuit of Millar -- until MLB officials intervened in the touchy issue.

Had the Dragons not released Millar from the contract, he had said he might still join the team, which is based in Nagoya.

Millar, citing family pressure from his wife and father regarding an impending war between the United States and Iraq, told a Chunichi official that because of the possible conflict, he doesn't want to be out of the U.S. this year.

In the last 10 days, MLB had tried to broker a deal between Millar and Chunichi, which had the right to post the infielder-outfielder. As a four-year player, Millar didnt have the requisite service time to be a free agent in either Japan or in the Majors.

"It's getting closer, but it still isn't done, can you believe it?" Millar's mother, Judy Millar-Misic, had said earlier Friday from Los Angeles. "I'm waiting to hear back from Kevin with some good news, hopefully today."

Sandy Alderson, MLB's vice president of baseball operations, and Rob Manfred, MLB's vice president of labor relations and human resources, worked with Millar and Chunichi trying to resolve the matter. MLB is sending the Mariners and A's to Tokyo to open the season on March 25-26 and didn't want the Millar issue to hurt its relationship with the Japan leagues.

Manfred, reached in New York on Friday, said: "I don't want to talk about this until it is resolved."

Alderson had earlier confirmed a comment he made Thursday to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel when he was reached in New York. "One possibility is that the player would end up back with the Marlins, at least for some period of time,'' he said. "That's a possibility, but we would just have to see how this thing gets itself resolved."

Asked if a resolution was pending, Alderson added at the time: "No, nothing is pending. These are negotiations. With the time difference between here and Japan, it's hard to say when it will get done.''

Japan is 10 hours ahead of the U.S. Eastern time zone.

The Marlins and Red Sox wouldn't comment and Millar wasn't immediately available for comment.

Millar claimed recently that he signed a faxed agreement in principle sent by the Dragons, but never signed the formal contract. Chunichi, though, rejected that stance. There is no formal process of arbitration set up in disagreements between an MLB player and the Japan leagues.

The Dragons maintained ownership of his rights and said he was subject to all the rules of the Japan leagues even though he hadn't reported to the team.

Millar was placed on waivers as a formality by the Marlins after he signed the contract with Chunichi. The Red Sox claimed him, although they were aware that his rights had already been sold to Chunichi. Millar, as stipulated by his agreement with the Dragons, turned down the waiver claim.

A player must have six years of Major League Baseball experience to file for free agency and in Japan he must have played 10 seasons before being eligible to file for unencumbered free agency. Under Japan professional baseball rules, Millar must be posted by the Japanese team, which can then sell his rights to the MLB team that makes the highest bid. The team gets the bid money and the player signs a contract.

Because the posting process is restrictive and so costly, Japanese players rarely take that route and usually wait until after their 10th season so they can choose an MLB team. Ichiro Suzuki used the posting method when he signed with Seattle before the 2001 season, but Hideki Matsui was a 10-year player with the Yomiuri Giants when he filed for free agency last fall and ultimately signed with the New York Yankees.

Millar, who made $900,000 last season, could enter the arbitration process upon his return or simply sign a new contract with the Red Sox once they purchased his rights from the Marlins. MLB doesn't want to create a precedent by allowing the 31-year-old Millar to become a free agent without the proper service time, nor allowing him to be directly transferred from Chunichi to Boston.

Millar led the Marlins with a .306 average last season and is a .296 career hitter.

The fact that the Marlins have one spot open on their 40-man roster "could turn out to be an important detail," Alderson said. Had the roster been full, the Marlins would have had to subject another player to waivers in order to make room, even temporarily, for Millar.

Barry M. Bloom is reporter for MLB.com and can be reached at barry.bloom@mlb.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.