Japanese pitching ace Masahiro Tanaka will wear the pinstripes for the coming MLB season. He had just agreed to a $115 million, seven year deal with the New York Yankees. According to the CBS report, the deal includes an opt out clause operating on the fourth year, as well as a posting fee paid to Tanaka's Nippon Professional Baseball team, the Rakuten Golden Eagles.
The 25-year-old right hander went 24-0 in the past season, with a 1.27 RA, 0.94 WHIP and 183 strikeouts. He appeared in 212 innings in 2013. Overall, Tanaka's seven year career saw him with a win loss record of 99-35, a 2.30 ERA lifetime and 1.11 WHIP.
According to NY Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner, "We're going to do what we've got to do to win," in an telephone interview, as reported by ESPN. While the original plan was to decrease payroll to within the 2014 tax threshold of $189 million, the team has gone the other way, spending nearly $500 million on players such as Jacoby Ellsbury ($153 million), Brian McCann ($100 million plus player option and Carlos Beltran ($45 million).
With Yankees again exceeding the threshold, the team would be taxed at a 50% rate in the future. If they dropped to the threshold, they would have been taxed by just 12.5%.
The player most coveted though in the offseason was Tanaka. The NY Times reported his repertoire to include a split finger fastball, which speeds between 90 mph and 97 mpg. He also has a slider, which is above average while his curveball and change up are deemed to be average. One of the highlights would be a 160 pitch count in Game 6 of the 2013 Japan Series.
With Tanaka on board, the pitching for the Yankees would be much better, after CC Sabathia as its ace and Hiroki Kuroda and Ivan Nova to follow in the order.
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
