Very early in the offseason, it appeared that the New York Yankees were cutting ties with the seven-season Yankee pitcher Masahiro Tanaka. His contract was up, and when the Yankees didn’t give him a qualifying offer, it seemed that his time with the Yankees might be over.
Tanaka, now a free agent, will be listening to offers from around baseball. Although Tanaka has been a solid pitcher for the Yankees and a fan favorite, the Yankees realize he isn’t worth the $23 million he was paid last year. The risk for the Yankees in employing a mid-rotation pitcher is that they can’t be sure what they will get no matter who that is. With Tanaka, they do know what they will get.
Suppose the New York Yankees decided to keep Tanaka, which it might now appear that they may. They will want to go on a yearly basis at a deeply discounted amount, probably in the area of $10-12 million range. However, the Yankees do not yet know how much interest there will be for Tanaka. There might be a mystery team out that that will offer Tanaka a two-year contract, closer to $30 million. The Yankees aren’t going to want to spend that much or commit to a longer contract.
You have to remember just a month or so after starting with the Yankees seven years ago, Tanaka partially tore his UCL. Tanaka avoided Tommy John surgery and instead went into six-week extreme rehab. Over the last seven years, he has avoided further tears, but one has to assume that every season since then, the Yankees have to wonder when the tear will get worse and cause him to lose a season.
If they do, that fear will play into the final contract if there is one in offering another contract to Tanaka. Whatever the case, the free-agent pitching market is beginning to shrink by the day, so the New York Yankees will have to start making decisions.