After much speculation and rumors, starting pitcher Masahiro Tanaka will be posted by the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
Rakuten’s decision to post Masahiro Tanaka was announced by team president Yozo Tachibana.
— Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) December 25, 2013
The 25-year old Japanese right-hander gained notoriety for his undefeated streak in the 2013 season. The 6’2”, 205 pound Tanaka went 24-0 in the regular season for the Golden Eagles. He also posted a sparkling 1.27 ERA while pitching eight complete games
He is known to throw a fastball in the low 90s while being able to elevate to reach the mid 90s. His signature pitch is his splitter with late downward motion. He is also said to have a mid-80s slider and a curveball as well.
While his stuff doesn’t translate into domination, a la fellow countryman Yu Darvish; there is another notable Japanese pitcher that he does draw comparisons to. Current Yankees starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda is a name often brought up when speaking of Tanaka. The aggressive approach that Kuroda utilizes includes pounding the strike zone and challenging opposing batters to hit the ball with little success. This is the style that Tanaka implements that makes him the best potential free agent available. He could finish as a #2 or #3 starter in a major-league rotation. If he can keep opposing batters guessing and off balance with his pitches, expect him to succeed in the major leagues.
The new agreement between Nippon Professional Basbeall (NPB) and the MLB features new rules. In the new posting system…
1) A NPB team must agree if they want to post one of their players between November 1st and February 1st.
2) The NPB team will make a “release fee” that teams may post to get the rights to negotiate with the player. However, the maximum “release fee” that can be requested is $20 million.
3) In the event that there is a tie on the “release fee,” then all teams will get an attempt at negotiating with the posted player with the intent of signing the player.
4) If the posted player is unable to agree to a contract with a MLB team, the “release fee” is returned to the team and the player returns to his NPB team until the following November 1st when he may formally request to be posted again.
This new posting system will be implemented for the next three years.
The previous posting system used blind posting bids that put no maximum limit on the bid that a team may place. This system brought in over $51 million to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters when the Texas Rangers won the exclusive rights to negotiate with starting pitcher Yu Darvish. This also got over $51 million to the Seibu Lions when the Boston Red Sox won the exclusive negotiating rights to starting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. These two giant offers led many to believe that Tanaka’s former team, the Golden Eagles, to earn up to $60 million in the old posting system.
The new posting system has been put into place so that small market teams may have a fair try at signing talent like Tanaka. The “release fee” does not have an effect on a team’s luxury tax so many big market teams put in enormous bids attempting to be leaps and bounds above all other teams. With the low maximum of $20 million, it is expected that most or all of the MLB teams will jump in on this opportunity.
Despite nearly every team likely to put in the $20 million “release fee,” certain teams will be stand outs as aggressive pursuers and likely suitors. Big market teams like the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs would appear to be front runners for the Japanese right-hander.
The Yankees have made it very clear that they plan to be very aggressive in the pursuit of bringing Tanaka to the Bronx in pinstripes to join a rotation that features CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda and Ivan Nova so far.
UPDATE 12/25Â Tanaka has chosen Casey Close to be his agent in the US. Close represents a few big names in MLB, most notably Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira. He will officially be posted on Thursday December 26th, at that time teams can submit the $20 million posting fee for the rights to negotiate with him. The bidding war will be over by 5:00 p.m. Eastern time, for that is the signing deadline. Hopefully by 5:01 p.m on January 24th we will finally know where Masahiro Tanaka will be.
