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Baseball|Yankees Reach Deal With Tanaka for $155 Millionhttp://nyti.ms/1ezwBngSee next articlesSee previous articles- Home Page
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They met for almost three hours at a private residence in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Jan. 8, and the length of the session left the Yankees feeling encouraged. After all, their eight-member delegation had been allotted only one hour to meet with Masahiro Tanaka, the prized Japanese right-handed pitcher, and his agent, Casey Close, but instead the give-and-take kept going and the Yankees kept making their pitch.
They told Tanaka, who had a startling 24-0 record in 2013, that both the Yankees and New York City stood out from the competition and that someone with his talent could flourish in that environment. They showed a video containing scenes of Yankee glory, including shots of Hideki Matsui, the Japanese slugger who thrived with the Yankees. They even recruited Matsui to insert a message in the video, in which he told Tanaka of the virtues of playing in pinstripes.
At one point, the video equipment broke down, a reminder, maybe, of all the injuries that bedeviled the Yankees in their frustrating 2013 season. But the equipment was fixed, the video presentation was concluded and the Yankees message was complete: They could offer Tanaka a stage no other team could match, and they were prepared to back up their words with an enormous amount of money.
When they were done, the Yankees waited, not sure if another team might find a way to outmaneuver them. And then, late Tuesday, nearly two weeks after that initial meeting, the Yankees got the word from Close they had been hoping for: Tanaka had agreed to accept their offer of a seven-year, $155 million contract, the fifth-largest deal landed by a pitcher and the most money given to a player coming from Japan.
The deal includes an opt-out clause that will allow Tanaka to become a free agent after four seasons in the Bronx. The Yankees will pay an additional $20 million to the Rakuten Eagles, Tanakas former team in Japan, as part of the new posting agreement between Major League Baseball and Japanese clubs.
With the signing of Tanaka, the Yankees concluded their extensive, and very expensive, off-season roster renovation, which they undertook while feeling the sting of not making the playoffs for just the second time in 19 seasons. The money spent on Tanaka, Brian McCann (five years, $85 million), Jacoby Ellsbury (seven years, $153 million) and Carlos Beltran (three years, $45 million) comes to $438 million, not including the $20 million posting fee for Tanaka, leaving the Yankees with the same heavy-spending image they had been hoping to modify.
But they also believe they now have a good chance to be as formidable as they were before the 2013 season knocked them astride.
A lot of heavy lifting needed to take place, General Manager Brian Cashman said, referring to the teams roster deficiencies, and it has taken place.
The final negotiations for Tanaka were handled by Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees managing general partner. Steinbrenner had vowed repeatedly that his goal of fiscal restraint would not be achieved at the expense of the teams pursuit of its 28th World Series banner.
In the end, he proved true to his words. The Yankees off-season extravaganza will take them well past the $189 million payroll threshold for 2014 that Steinbrenner had initially hoped to stay under to reap financial benefits. Instead, the Yankees will continue to pay a 50 percent luxury tax on every payroll dollar over $189 million and will forfeit millions more in rebates.
By the time the Yankees have completed their roster for 2014, their payroll could again be over the familiar $200 million mark. But for the Yankees, all of that will probably fade into a footnote if Tanaka lives up to his projection and helps the Yankees rebound in the standings, in their TV ratings and in their attendance numbers.
He thrives on the biggest stage, Cashman said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday afternoon, and hopefully that is one of the reasons he chose us.
Tanaka, who turned 25 on Nov. 1, pitched seven seasons for Rakuten, going 99-35 with a career earned run average of 2.30. His 24-0 mark last season (along with an almost-as-impressive 1.27 E.R.A.) helped Rakuten win its first Japan Series championship.
The Yankees had been scouting him since 2007, Cashman said, and paid particular attention to his performances in the World Baseball Classic, where he had an opportunity to pitch against major league hitters.
Hes just gotten better and better, Cashman said, and with the competition, whether the playoffs or the W.B.C., it seemed like the bigger the game, the more he would step up.
Tanakas signature pitch is a split-finger fastball, which scouts say is as close to an unhittable offering as there is in baseball these days. One scout for a National League team said Tanaka could throw between 90 and 97 miles per hour and dials it up when he needs to. Tanaka also throws a very good slider, but his curveball and his changeup are considered average by major league standards.
Still, almost nothing could stop Tanaka last season, including pitch counts. In Game 6 of the Japan Series, he took a rare loss while throwing 160 pitches, an almost unheard-of number for a major league pitcher in an era when arm injuries are a daily concern. But Tanaka came back the next night and threw 15 more pitches as the closer in the Eagles Game 7 victory.
You always have concerns, Cashman said when asked about that two-game sequence, which raced past every caution flag major league teams employ. Thats something you cant ignore or deny. But with his age, his talent and the scouting assessment, and with the pitching market the way it is, we were willing to take the risk.
Other teams were as well. Nevertheless, during Tanakas two-day visit to Los Angeles this month, he took a physical with the Dodgers team doctor, and all interested teams were forwarded the results.
According to a person affiliated with one of the teams involved in the chase, seven clubs initially wooed Tanaka, including the Dodgers, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Houston Astros, the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox, and all were given a chance to meet with Tanaka and make their case.
When it was the Yankees turn, they dispatched Cashman; Manager Joe Girardi; the team president Randy Levine; the assistant general managers Billy Eppler and Jean Afterman; the pitching coach Larry Rothschild; Trey Hillman, a former manager of the Nippon Ham Fighters and now a member of the Yankees player-development department; and George Rose, the Yankees Japanese liaison and the former interpreter for Hideki Irabu, who pitched for the Yankees in the late 1990s.
During the Beverly Hills meeting, Tanaka told the Yankees that some of the other clubs he had met with said they planned to ease him into their rotations without putting too much pressure on him. That did not sit well with him.
He didnt want to be eased into anything, said one of the Yankee executives in the room at the time. He said he wanted to be the man.
The Yankees came away impressed with his confidence, which matched what they had heard from their scouts in Japan, some of whom had seen him pitch numerous times. They felt he resembled Matsui, whose quiet but strong personality became an enduring part of Yankee teams in the previous decade.
After meeting with his major league suitors, Tanaka went back to Sendai, Japan, to work out, and Close got to work. Teams were told that to have a shot, they would have to submit bids of at least six years and $120 million. That reduced the field, with the Yankees, the Dodgers and the Cubs apparently emerging as the three finalists. Cashman said he was told that the Yankees had made the highest bid but that other teams were not that far off.
Signing Tanaka carries risk for the Yankees, who have been burned in the Japanese market. Irabu, whom they acquired in 1997, had a 4.80 E.R.A. in three seasons with the Yankees and was more or less a bust. Kei Igawa, who cost the Yankees nearly $50 million in posting fees and salary, was worse. He made only 16 appearances and won two games for the Yankees over a five-year deal that began in 2007.
But Tanaka is considered a far superior pitcher to Igawa and a more competitive and determined athlete than Irabu. He will join a rotation that was in need of help and otherwise consists of C. C. Sabathia, the fellow Japanese pitcher Hiroki Kuroda, Ivan Nova and a fifth starter to be named.
In the end, the Yankees are not assured of a return to the postseason with the addition of Tanaka, Ellsbury, McCann and Beltran. But they will probably be more competitive, and will certainly be more expensive.
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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/sports/baseball/yankees-reach-deal-with-japanese-pitcher-masahiro-tanaka.html
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