Former Yankees OF Jones attempting MLB comeback

Former Yankees outfielder Andruw Jones didn't seem to leave the United States on a high note two years ago, but the veteran is nonetheless attempting a comeback.

Jones, 37, is currently trying to land a spot on an MLB club after spending a pair of seasons in Japan, the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo reports.

Jones played for NPB's Rakuten Golden Eagles following his departure from the Yankees after 2012, performing solidly in the new league. He hit .243/.391/.454 in 2013 and .221/.394/.426 in 2014, racking up a total of 50 home runs and 165 RBI.

According to Cafardo, Jones is presently drawing interest from two unknown teams, but it's unlikely either will offer him more than minor-league deal. Jones is looking for a job as a part-time outfielder/first baseman, his agent Scott Boras said.

Jones, who held a spot on the Yankees' bench from 2011-2012, struggled during his last year in the majors, batting just .197/.294/.408 in 94 games for New York. However, he was in fact better the season before, slashing a respectable .247/.356/.495.

His career average is .254, going along with 434 homers. Jones is a five-time All-Star and a 10-time Gold Glove winner, but the most recent of the those accolades came in 2007.

Yankees Sell Zelous Wheeler to Japan

The New York Yankees have announced the selling of the rights to infielder Zelous Wheeler to the Rakuten Golden Eagles, Masahiro Tanaka's former team. Wheeler likely wanted to play in Japan and asked the team for the sale so the Yankees clear a 40 man roster spot and save some cash while Zelous gets what he wants. Win-win for everybody.

Masahiro Tanaka Bringing Impressive Resume To Yankees

Masahiro Tanaka has had a really good career to date, if you can say that for a 25 year old, and brings a very impressive resume to the Yankees and to the states. Let's take a look at his career stats while he was pitching in Japan.

Tanaka had a very impressive 2013 season including a 24-0 record with a 1.27 ERA throwing 212.0 IP with 30 earned runs allowed in 28 games, 27 of them as a starter. Tanaka allowed 168 hits and allowed 32 walks while striking out 183 batters. Tanaka threw eight complete games and two shut outs and a save in 2013. Tanaka led the Nippon Professional Baseball league in wins and ERA and led his team to the Japan Series title, the first title in Rakuten franchise history.

Tanaka for his career in Japan, all with the Rakuten Golden Eagles, posted a 99-35 record with a 2.30 ERA pitching 1,315.0 IP. Tanaka gave up a total of 336 earned runs, 1,182 hits, gave up 275 walks, and struck out 1,238 batters in 175 games, 172 as a starter. Tanaka has some mileage on his arm as he has thrown 53 complete games in his seven professional seasons, 18 of them shutouts, and allowed 0.899 H/9 in his career.

MLB To Prevent Tanaka From Donating To Rakuten

There were many meetings held before the Rakuten Golden Eagles finally decided to post their star pitcher Masahiro Tanaka including talks of a new deal with the 25 year old right hander. News has been slowly circulating that Tanaka planned on donating money to Rakuten to help put a dome on the stadium over there and MLB is not going to allow that.

Major League Baseball wants to make sure that Rakuten will get no more than the $20 million posting fee that all parties agreed upon, and good for them for standing up to Rakuten and holding up the policies in place. There are rules already in place stating that the former team cannot receive any money from the player or any money besides the posting fee.

Masahiro Tanaka Will Be Posted, For Real This Time

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.”

Kevin Youkilis Signs With The Rakuten Golden Eagles

Isn't it ironic that the Yankees have made the Rakuten Golden Eagles star pitcher Masahiro Tanaka their number one priority this season and we lost one of our own free agents, Kevin Youkilis, to that same team? Where is our $20 million for Youkilis signing with Rakuten? We should get Tanaka as compensation, it's only fair right? On a serious note though when Youkilis turned down any offer the Yankees may have even thought about offering by saying he wanted to play closer to his family on the West Coast I thought that meant the United States, not Japan.