Masahiro Tanaka’s desire to face MLB hitters in 2014 is strong. The chances of that happening are controlled by the Rakuten Golden Eagles.
“I informed my team that I would like them to allow me to test my abilities in Major League Baseball next season,” Tanaka said Tuesday at a press conference in Japan following a meeting with Rakuten president Yozo Tachibana.
The only way the 25-year-old right-hander can play for a MLB team next year is for Rakuten to post Tanaka because he is two seasons shy of the nine years needed to reach free agency in Japan. The new posting process was officially introduced Monday and caps the fee for players at $20 million. Until the new rules went into play, the posting fee on Tanaka could have climbed to a $60 or $70 million windfall for Rakuten.
The Golden Eagles, who won the Japan Series, voted against the new posting agreement in balloting by Japan’s 12 teams Monday and want Tanaka to remain with them for next season.
“We told him he is very important to us and we’d like him to stay,” Tachibana said.
Considering the free-agent market for starting pitchers — Ervin Santana, Ubaldo Jimenez, Matt Garza — doesn’t excite many, Tanaka would certainly jump to the head of the class and command a lot more than the roughly $4 million he made this past season, when he was 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA during the regular season.
Under the rules of the three-year posting agreement announced Monday, a Japanese club may make players available between Nov. 1 and Feb. 1.
Beginning with the day after a player is posted and continuing for 30 days, any big league team willing to pay the fee may attempt to sign the player. A major league team pays the posting fee only if it signs the player, and the fee is then payable in installments, with the timing dependent on the amount.
The Yankees are among several teams very interested in the Tanaka saga. Under the old system in which there was no cap on the posting fee — which doesn’t count toward the $189 million luxury tax threshold — the Yankees would have been the favorite to land Tanaka. Now, the field has been leveled, and the Cubs, Dodgers, Angels and Diamondbacks are reportedly interested in driving up the bidding.
With CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova and Hiroki Kuroda in place, the Yankees have two open spots in the starting rotation. Sabathia is coming off a subpar 14-13 season in which he posted a 4.78 ERA. Nova hasn’t proven to be consistent, and Kuroda will be 39 in February after struggling in the latter part of 2013.