KYODO NEWS - Nov 16, 2017 - 16:30 | Sports, All

Major League Baseball said Wednesday it hopes to establish a new posting system with Japan by early December, in a move that would enable Japanese two-way phenom Shohei Otani to start negotiations with U.S. teams.

MLB Chief Legal Officer Dan Halem said a new framework has been agreed with Nippon Professional Baseball, but MLB is awaiting approval from its Players Association.

He said a deal with the union could happen within a week, after which MLB owners would hold a conference call for an approval vote, not during the general managers meetings running in Orlando through Thursday.

"Once it's approved, it will go in place," Halem was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying. "I'm hopeful that we'll have a new system in which players can be posted by the NPB in early December."

Currently, there is no posting agreement formally in place between NPB and MLB. The Associated Press reported last week that the two sides have agreed to carry over the former system -- in place since December 2013 -- for another year pending the approval of the MLB Players Association.

Otani, 23, announced Saturday he wants to move to the major leagues through the posting system, and would like to continue both hitting and pitching.

The 23-year-old player in 2016 helped the Nippon Ham Fighters win the Japan Series and was voted the Pacific League's MVP, as well as its top pitcher and designated hitter.

One of the hang-ups to Major League Baseball Players Association approval was Otani not having a union-certified agent, an issue that has since been cleared up. Last week, Otani signed with Creative Artists Agency and will be represented by Nez Balelo.

In his five seasons with the Sapporo-based Fighters, Otani has a 42-15 record on the mound with a 2.52 career ERA. He has struck out 624 batters in his 543 innings and holds the record for the fastest pitch recorded in Japan at 165 kilometers per hour (102.5 miles per hour).

At the plate, he is a .286 career hitter with 48 home runs, 150 runs and 166 RBIs in 1,170 plate appearances, mostly as a designated hitter.

Because he is under 25 and now treated as an amateur, Otani has to sign a minor-league contract that is subject to signing bonus pools to enter MLB under baseball's new collective bargaining agreement -- agreed to last year with the union. That agreement radically decreases Otani's earning power should he go to the United States this winter.

Several reports have indicated players association members being unhappy with Nippon Ham receiving $20 million, while Otani receives a tiny bonus and a minor league salary. Yet, the players were a party to the agreement that drastically reduced his earning power as a 23-year-old.

"In regards to the posting system, we have been in contact with the players association," Balelo told Japanese media. "We continue to talk to the players association to get feedback, but we know it's not buttoned up yet."

Under the old posting rules, any MLB team interested in a posted Japanese player could offer up to $20 million for the right to negotiate with the player, with only the team that signs the player transferring the fee to the NPB team. And even though NPB and MLB wish to resume that system for the next year, by scrapping the old agreement this summer, MLB has put the issue in the hands of its players association.