Big news from Japan this morning. The New York Times passes along reports from Japan that the Rakuten Golden Eagles will not post Masahiro Tanaka. Rather, as reported last night, they are going to offer him a contract in the neighborhood of $8 million and force him to stay in Japan.
This would be way less than what Tanaka could earn in the U.S., but what he could earn in the U.S. would mean little if anything to Rakuten, who is under no obligation to post Tanaka. All they would get if they did post him is $20 million, which could be less than Tanaka’s overall value to the franchise if he were to remain with the Golden Eagles. After all, he’s coming off a 24-0 season in which he posted a 1.27 ERA and 183/32 K/BB in 212 innings. What would that be worth to you? Plenty, I bet.
If this holds it’s a big financial blow to Tanaka. And a big blow to whichever of the several major league teams with reported interest in bidding on him who would’ve ended up with him.