Praise the lord, praise the baseball Gods, praise whoever we need to praise because Masahiro Tanaka will be posted after all, for real this time. This was announced yesterday so sorry for the delay as I have two young children and we had some sort of holiday going on all day.
I don't think the Yankees or their fans could have asked for a better Christmas present than this as Tanaka is easily the best starting pitcher available on the market now. Tanaka is coming off of a 24-0 season and a 30 start unbeaten streak that he will be bringing over to the states.
Just as a reminder there will be no posting system going on here. Any team that brings $20 million to the table can negotiate with Tanaka for 30 days. Only the winning team has to pony up the $20 million and if they cannot come to an agreement with Tanaka the $20 million will be returned to the team and Tanaka will be returned to Rakuten. That means it would be next season before we saw Tanaka posted again.
Here is the quote from the Rakuten Golden Eagles team president Yozo Tachibana:
“After evaluating Tanaka’s contributions in the seven years since joining the franchise, owner Hiroshi Mikitani accepted his wish to challenge himself in the Major Leagues and decided to petition for him to be posted” said Tachibana in a statement. “As a team which has valuable players, there’s no change in our view that this is an extremely unfair system.”
Good news. I for one, will throw in a hundred if asked.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Balfour. At least send him a card.
Balfour said he would be willing to pitch the 8th.... turn me on much?
ReplyDelete