Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports is reporting that Masahiro Tanaka is heading to the New York Yankees after agreeing to a whopping seven year, $155 million dollar contract.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that Tanaka will earn $22 million in each season of the contract except the final season, when his salary will jump to $23 million.
So far, the Yankees have spent $438 million this offseason which began with the Steinbrenner brothers both advocating that it would be an offseason of belt-tightening. Wow…
Seriously though, that’s a lot of money for a pitcher who has never thrown a pitch in the major leagues.
The 25-year old right-hander did have a record-breaking season in Japan, going 24-0 with a 1.27 earned run average and copping the Pacific League MVP with the Rakuten Golden Eagles.
MLBTR writes that overall, his career numbers are almost as impressive as his 2013 campaign. Tanaka debuted as an 18-year-old in 2007 but still hurled 186 1/3 innings. Since that time, he’s pitched to a 2.30 ERA with 8.5 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 in 1315 career regular-season innings — all coming with the Golden Eagles.
It’s going to be interesting to watch his season and his career unfold before our very eyes while pitching in the crosstown Bronx.
