Yankees Sign Masahiro Tanaka

Like many predicted the New York Yankees won the bidding war on Masahiro Tanaka, in part due to the fact that Alex Rodriguez's suspension was upheld. Tanaka will be pitching in New York under a 7 year $155 Million contract that contains an opt out clause after the forth season. Tanaka is 25 and compared to Clayton Kershaw who is also 25 Tanaka was just $60 Million shy of his deal making Tanaka the second largest contract given to a pitcher this off season.

Tanaka, as mentioned earlier is 25 years old and has already pitched 7 complete seasons for the Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan. He has racked up 1315 innings in those 7 seasons which did concern many clubs, but I don't see it as a concern, I think he will make the transition nicely, just like Yu Darvish.

To compare Tanaka to Darvish, both pitched in the same league, Darvish for the Nippon Ham Fighters, so they have been facing the same players over the past few seasons. Yu Darvish also pitched seven complete seasons before coming to the United States and racked up 1268 Innings, so I do not see the concern with Tanaka pitching just 47 innings more. In his last three seasons Darvish pitched in Japan his ERA was 1.73, 1.78, and 1.44 respectively. He also averaged roughly 200 innings pitched per season those last three seasons. As for Tanaka the last three seasons he pitched his ERA was 1.27, 1.87, and 1.27 respectively. Tanaka averaged roughly 200 innings pitched per season those last three seasons as well.

The difference between Tanaka and Darvish is the fact that Davish has "strikeout stuff," but there is not enough significant evidence to support that claim. In Tanaka's career in Japan he had 8.5 K/9 and Darvish had 8.9 K/9, so they are actually statistically similar. Tanaka does feature a great splitter/slider combination and can reach 94-95 on his fast ball but averages around 91-92. Comparisons for Tanaka come to Hiroki Kuroda.

The Yankees needed pitching rather badly, and now they have four given arms in their rotation. Tanaka will likely take the third slot just to be safe behind Sabathia and Kuroda. The next step for the Yankees in this busy off season would to add to their bullpen and improve on their infield depth.