Masahiro Tanaka’s future — and the look of the Yankees’ 2014 rotation — is firmly in the palms of Japan’s Rakuten Golden Eagles.
And Major League Baseball folks believe the stud right-hander will eventually be posted by Rakuten — the first step for Tanaka to become a free agent.
With Monday’s announcement MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball officially have put a new posting process in place, Rakuten can make the star hurler available to all 30 major league teams through a procedure that will be in play for three years.
Because the new posting process runs from Nov. 1 to Feb. 1, Tanaka, 25, can be posted immediately. The pitcher was scheduled to meet with Rakuten ownership once the agreement on the posting process was reached.
Under the new rules, Rakuten can set a posting price for Tanaka that can’t exceed $20 million. If more than one team comes in at the established price, Tanaka can negotiate with each of the highest bidders. The posting fee doesn’t count against the major league $189 million luxury-tax threshold. Obviously, any salary Tanaka draws from a MLB club does count. The teams that don’t sign Tanaka get their $20 million posting fees back.
When a player is posted, any team willing to pay what is being termed a “release fee’’ has 30 days to negotiate with the player. If no deal is struck, the fee is returned to the MLB club.
Having scouted Tanaka extensively this past season, the Yankees have him high on their offseason priority list as they attempt to upgrade a suspect rotation.
Monday night, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, as he has done throughout the entire process, refused to comment on Tanaka. After the World Series, teams received an email from MLB forbidding them from discussing Tanaka, who also has been linked to the Angels, Cubs, Diamondbacks, and Dodgers.
Had the former system remained in place, the Golden Eagles were looking at a possible posting fee in the $60 million to $70 million range. The Rangers paid a $51.7 million posting fee after the 2011 season to get Yu Darvish, and signed him to a six-year contract worth $56 million.
Having completed his seventh season, Tanaka can’t become a free agent in Japan until after the 2015 season. Possibly figuring into the Golden Eagles’ decision whether to post Tanaka is the chance of retaining him, along with the risk of injury in 2014 after a strenuous workload this past season when he went 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA to lead Rakuten to the Japan Series title.
Under the old system, the Yankees and other big market-clubs would have made significant posting bids well above the $20 million mark.
“At least 15, maybe more,’’ a baseball executive said when asked how many clubs would be involved in the posting process now that the fee has been capped at $20 million.
With free agent Ervin Santana looking for five years and $80 million, Phil Hughes getting a three-year deal for $24 million, Jason Vargas getting four years and $32 million and Bartolo Colon bagging two years and $20 million, Tanaka is in line for significant money after making roughly $4 million this past season.
For a pitcher who has never worked a major league inning, Tanaka has clogged the free-agent starting pitching market. In addition to Santana, Matt Garza and Ubaldo Jimenez remain unsigned.