The Masahiro Tanaka sweepstakes have officially begun and there are a number of teams that would love to get their hands on the young Japanese pitcher, including the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers.
Tanaka was posted this week by his Japanese team after there were rumors that he may not get posted, but after the MLB and other league agreed on a new posting system, the team followed the wishes of Tanaka, who had said that he wanted to play in America. The new system is open for 30 days and allows teams to bid on the right to negotiate with Tanaka, with the cap at $20 million after it previously was uncapped, allowing teams like the Red Sox and Rangers to bid over $50 million for players like Dice-K and Yu Darvish.
According to ESPN.com, Tanaka has been posted and the length of time teams have to try and snag him is until January 24 and reports have the Yankees, Chicago Cubs and the Dodgers as some of the strongest teams in their pursuit of Tanaka. Many reports have the Yankees as the favorite even with the cap on spending, as the team has been motivated to add a top flight pitcher to the rotation this offseason and they have balked so far at the money being asked for by players like Ervin Santana and Matt Garza.
A report from Hardball Talk says that Tanaka should command over $15 million per season on the market and while the Yankees want to keep their payroll down, they also want to win and after signing Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran, the team is ready to try and dish out for Tanaka as well. The pitching market this season has been weak and that has made Tanaka the top target for teams now that he has been posted from the Rakuten Golden Eagles. Tanaka is coming into the market at the perfect time in his career, as he is just 25 years old and is coming off of a season that saw him have an ERA under 1.30 and he also went 24-0 during the season.
The Yankees need another arm badly, while the Dodgers have some solid names with Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Josh Beckett and Dan Haren already, but they could add Tanaka as well. The Red Sox are in the mix, as are the Diamondbacks and while the Rangers are likely out after signing Shin-Soo Choo and Yu Darvish already, they could even get in on the action.
The MLB offseason is far from over and the first part of 2014 could see some major signings, especially with pitchers and once Tanaka signs, the other dominos may start to fall.
