SEOUL, South Korea --

The Los Angeles Dodgers are believed to be the winning bidder for the right to negotiate a contract with pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin of the Korea Baseball Organization, sources familiar with the thinking of rival MLB executives told ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney.

Ryu is a 25-year-old left-hander for the Hanwha Eagles. The Eagles on Saturday did not identify the Major League Baseball team that posted the winning bid but said they have accepted a posting fee of $25.7 million.

The Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers were among the clubs thought to be interested in Ryu. Sources told Olney that the Cubs and New York Yankees definitely were not the winning bidders.

The winning bidder now has 30 days to negotiate a contract with Ryu, who was 98-52 with a 2.80 career ERA during seven seasons in South Korea. He pitched for his country on teams that won a gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and reached the championship game of the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

The $25.7 million fee will be paid to the Eagles only if Ryu signs with a major league team. MLB.com reported that the pitcher is represented by agent Scott Boras.

The posting system brought Japanese stars Yu Darvish, Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka to the majors. Last winter, the Rangers gave Darvish a six-year contract guaranteeing him $56 million after submitting a record $51,703,411 posting bid to his former team, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.