With the Yankees reportedly focusing much of their attention on DJ LeMahieu’s free agency, there hasn’t been much buzz about the possibility of a reunion between Masahiro Tanaka and the Bronx Bombers. Tanaka has made some recent comments about his future, most recently a tweet earlier today stating that he and his representatives haven’t put any sort of limit on what teams Tanaka might be considering playing for in 2021 and beyond.
This tweet came on the heels of reports suggesting Tanaka was only considering a return to the Yankees or a return to Nippon Professional Baseball, rather than signing with another MLB club. As it happened, Tanaka left the door open to pitching in Japan in an interview on the “All Night Nippon” radio show (hat tip to Nikkan Sports), saying the chances of returning to his home country are “not zero.” Tanaka implied that pitching for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, his original NPB team, would be his ideal choice in the event of a homecoming, but he also said he’d consider the Yomiuri Giants.
During the radio interview, Tanaka also implied that he had yet to receive a contract offer from a Major League team, which doesn’t seem implausible given the slow-moving nature of this offseason’s free agent market. More teams than just the Yankees seem to be playing the waiting game, whether it’s for a particular player or for a broader view of the market as a whole — in terms of pitching, clubs could be waiting to see where Trevor Bauer signs, or waiting to see where trade targets land. By that token, business could pick up now that Yu Darvish and Blake Snell have both been moved, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if Tanaka begins to receive more serious attention from MLB clubs.
Rejoining the Golden Eagles or signing with another NPB team would certainly count as a surprise, since Tanaka still represents a solid investment for seemingly any Major League team looking for rotation help. (MLB Trade Rumors ranked him 10th on our list of the offseason’s top 50 free agents.) Tanaka posted a 3.56 ERA, 8.3 K/9, and 5.50 K/BB rate in 2020, with that 48-inning sample size pretty closely matching his career totals over seven Major League seasons with the Yankees. One would imagine this type of production would be welcome in a New York rotation that is lacking in proven big league experience, though given the speculation that the Yankees are trying to stay under the luxury tax threshold, re-signing Tanaka doesn’t appear to be a priority for the team unless LeMahieu signs elsewhere.
So then I guess crickets in Anaheim?
I picked him to end up with the Angels. If they sign Bauer that might eat up all payroll flexibility. They should target Tanaka and a plethora of quality arms. Looks like you could add a number of quality bullpen arms at a fraction of what it would have take a year ago. He’s had his injuries but he’s also looked dynamic with that splitter at times.
Tanaka has really good numbers for someone who has to pitch in tiny ball parks. Tanaka and Ohtani could end up getting in a friendly pitchers competition
I actually expect Tanaka to sign with the Angels. I think they will be outbid for Bauer and they will look to a former Yankee and act like he’s an Ace. Then fans will realize Tanaka is only a #2 or #3 and be disappointed in how much Art Moreno paid for him. Seems like par for the course with the Angels and pitching.
They’d be better off getting into a hitting competition because Ohtani will never pitch enough for that to be a fair competition
My thoughts exactly.
good point
AL East does not have smaller parks…they have better teams.
Mets get Sugano and then Tanaka.
Mets would be a great fit for Tanaka. Biggest knock on him is giving up HRs. Get him out of Yankee Stadium (which is a nightmare for righties) and into Citi Field, and I bet he might have a career year. Also, with deGrom, Stroman, and Syndergaard, he won’t be asked to be a top of the rotation guy like the Yanks demanded of him.
They didn’t demand it of him, he actually was a top of the rotation guy
He was, but is now more of a 3/4 SP. Problem with stats given here is that they’re based on longer past performance and are limited. Over the last 4 seasons, his ERA is around 4.10. He also doesn’t consistently pitch far past the 5th. Still useful for a decent price.
He has never been an ace. For a team with World Series aspirations, he should never be more than a No. 3 or 4 starter at best.
Is your username related to the band?
Poison the Well thats my jam one of my first metal albums when i was 14
yes
Then Kaz Suzuki comes out of retirement, and Hideio Nomo comes out of retirement,and Hideki Irabu comes back from the dead, and former WWF manager Mr. Fuji is named bench coach, and Mr. Miyagi replaces Mr. Met!!!
Cant have Mr Fuji without Professor Tanaka, that was Fuji’s tag team partner in the good old days of wrestling.
I’d be shocked if Tanaka passed a physical. I know he still has a partial tear in his UCL
I was unaware of this. He’s going to sign somewhere but that could certainly limit his market and how much he can command
He’s had a partially torn UCL for 5+ years now. I’m willing to bet every veteran pitcher in MLB has some sort of minor tear in their UCL or their rotator cuff / labrum. Pitching is not a natural movement for the human body so it stands to reason these muscles tend to tear frequently. Tanka has obviously learned to thrive with his torn UCL so it should be a non-issue unless it has gotten progressively worse over the years.
If Tanaka signed with the Angels its virtually guaranteed that partially torn UCL completely tears
I wouldn’t mind Tanaka on a 3 year deal for Texas. He’s older, but we haven’t been scared of signing older players recently (to multi year deals too). We need more of a higher leverage starter because I really don’t like the thought of Dunning, Gibson, or Arihara being our ace. Go get a Paxton, Tanaka, or Odorizzi. I’ll be happy with that.
Agreed Rangers29
Would be intriguing for a lot of reasons. I actually think the Rangers new ballpark would be beneficial for him. If the Rangers are still in a rebuild, he can be flipped for prospects 18 -24 months from now. Would bring a lot of stability to the rotation as they need another starter.
Partially torn UCL or not he produces. Keep him 155-175 innings and he will be good. 3 year $39m is my guess. Angels, Mets and Jays need someone good and not overpaying for Bauer.
All Tanaka’s ever cared about is nugs, chillin’ and grindage
Nugs not drugs!
You’re the one who’s been wheezing off Darkside’s gig this whole time, thinking it would get you somewhere.
Bauer would probably take the rest of the remaining open payroll. If not signing Bauer meant acquiring Tanaka and maybe a Taijuan Walker, I’m all in.
Be pretty wild if he goes back to Japan. Starting to see lots of quality players make the move. Wonder what contracts are like over there ?
I think the loser Justin Smoak got $6-7mm USD so that’s a pretty good payday.
I think the best Japanese players top out around $10-15mm USD.
Google says: The statistic shows the average player salary of the teams in Nippon Professional Baseball in 2019. The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks had the highest average player salary of around 1.52 million U.S. dollars for the 2019 season.
Justin Smoak is a driver and a winner. Things are gonna change, he can feel it.
Get this man to Anaheim
Padres number 3/4 pitcher
Would love to swing a trade for Gray then add Tanaka as the second piece. Getting him out of the bandboxes back East should soften his decline.
Gray, Tanaka, Bundy, Heaney, Canning with the occasional start by Ohtani and Iglesias holding leads should work with this offense.
Personally, I think the Angels should try to trade Jo Adell for someone like Zac Gallen in Arizona. That would give you a young, controllable ace that the Angels have been missing for so long. Adell is a top prospect and clearly at least a year away from being a major league contributor, so I think this trade could work.
I can see that. . Plesac in Cleveland, I’d even like Carrasco as a dependable 2 (obviously not for Adell). Detroit has lots of young pitching but no outfield help.
It makes sense.
Detroit has absolutely no one on their pitching staff worth trading Adell (or Marsh) for. I don’t think they have anyone worth trading Scott Schebler for…
Hey Masahiro Yu know who would love Yu to join him 🙂
Toronto is interested I bet
A big story would be Toronto is not interested, I’m waiting for it to break
This is really neat Sheep8, so many making fun of the fact the Jays are linked to multiple Free Agents. A lot of worried posters out there that the Jays load up and your team is left watching from the side lines because they were not “interested” in multiple players!
If the movie Mr. Baseball starring Tom Selleck has taught us anything(and it’s taught us a multitude of things)… Going to Japan to play baseball is never a good plot for a Comedy, not for the Bad News Bears, and not for Mr. Baseball…even Major League,who went back to the minors and failed in their shameless 2nd try to milk it, knew not to touch the West goes East or East meets West plotlines. No reporter has the guts to say it though, so hopefully Tanaka is reading this post
Mr. Baseball and Major League taught us that in an alternate universe Dennis Haysbert was meant to be a baseball player
If he had any marbles, he’d be doing it in this universe
Maybe if he had Joe boo…
Yankees only have about $61.25M to spend in free agency after their arbitration eligible guys and players still on long term contracts if they want to stay below the $210M luxury tax threshold. Lets say they were focused entirely on Bauer and DJLM. They give DJ $25M or so. Subtract another $35M or so of that for Bauer. That leaves them with around $1.25M to spend on anything or anybody else.
Furthermore if they did re-sign Tanaka it’d be for something like $15M. That leaves them with $46.25M They sign DJLM for $25M. That leaves them with $21.25M. Who else would they sign who’d be worth that even in combined salaries, currently on the market and who fills their needs?
Trill, Where are your coming up with your dollar figures? You say the Yanks have 61.25 Mil to spend? I am on Spotrac and it show the Yanks have $290,496.00(that is 290 thousand) to spend before hitting the luxury tax. that is their 40 man tax payroll of 191,709,524.00 Plus Est. Benefits of 15,500,000.00 and their estimated Minors salaries of 2,500,000.00 which equals a total of 209,709,524.00 in tax allocations.
I think it was 30m before arbitration either way it’s a long way from 60m. As a yankee fan as much as I love djl we are desperate for starting pitching. You can’t go into a season with so many questionable starters. This team won’t go anywhere without a major starting upgrade.
I did not factor in the $15.5M in player benefits, Ellsbury’s $5M buyout adding $26.2M to the luxury tax based on his salary’s AAV and minor league salaries.
So suddenly that’s $46.7M they don’t have to spend. And I was under estimating the projected arbitration salaries by a few hundred thousand here and there.
Whoops.
Man the CBA needs to change…. And man how is it that they have no pitching, a bunch of arbitration guys early in their years and not earning massive raises and they’re still this tight on the budget?
As with DJLM and the Dodgers, this feels like an agents attempt to loosen his client’s market
Sure Laughing, Yet the pundit that first tweeted about it, states his source is from the Dodger’s organization
Sugano, had reportedly arrived yesterday in the US apparently for physicals, Who is signing him? Giants, Mets and Jays reported to be interested. Deadline is on the 7th so another top name is likely to be signed, will this finally open the flood gates?
I would think Tanaka is a bigger need for the Yankees than DJ.
Tells you something about the Yankees priorities. A guy they signed two years ago to be a utility player is more important than adding starting pitching
Yankees can sign DJ 22mil 5 year and tanka 36mil 3 year deal. Then trade for starter Castillo from the Reds and pick up one more cheap bullpen guy line Colome free agent from white sox. Boom Hal’s cheap a** stays under luxury tax. Yankee fans really miss George he always wanted to add best players to win Hal just cares about the money.
Starters now 2021
Cole
Castillo
Tanka
Monty
German
Sevy mid season
Garcia
The Yankees would be better off signing Bauer. Sign Simmons at SS. And pick up Greene of Atlanta in trade. Then they would have a shot at a WS.
Actually Greene is a free agent. So even better. Saw him in the playoffs last year and he looked solid.
Yankees paid him too much. That makes it harder for Tanaka to be humble and challenge for more now.