Manfred hopeful issues delaying new posting agreement can be resolved

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday that the issues holding up the completion of a new posting agreement with Nippon Professional Baseball are "resolvable," offering a vote of confidence that a new system will be finalized before the Monday deadline reportedly set by the MLBPA.

A new posting system must be approved by the MLBPA before it can be ratified, and though both MLB and NPB have agreed on a new framework, the players' union appears prepared to table the issue if the system isn't tweaked to their liking by Monday's deadline. Still, as the annual GM meetings wrapped up Thursday in Florida, Manfred said he was optimistic the union would come around - a decision that would enable Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani to sign with an MLB club this winter.

"I'm hopeful the union will find a way to get on board and open that player market up," Manfred told Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports.

Were Ohtani to be posted under the proposed framework, the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters - his Japanese team - would receive a $20-million posting fee, while the 23-year-old pitcher-outfielder would be forced to sign a minor-league contract with a signing bonus ranging from $300,000 to $3.53 million. Manfred didn't say what was preventing the MLBPA from signing off on the new posting system, but made it clear that the union's issues with the agreement aren't "earth-shattering."

"I think the remaining issues should be resolvable,'' Manfred told ESPN's Jerry Crasnick. "We're satisfied with the way the discussions went with the NPB. We reached a good set of understandings with them that would be effective for us going forward. The (players' association) needs to resolve the issues that they have.''