The Yankees made signing Masahiro Tanaka their top priority this offseason and got their man in the early hours of Wednesday morning, signing the star Japanese pitcher to a seven-year, $155 million contract that has an opt-out clause after the fourth year.
The Yankees also have to pay the $20 million posting fee to Tanaka’s former team, the Rakuten Golden Eagles, making their total outlay $175 million. Though the posting fee is not subject to the luxury tax, the contract itself assures the Yankees’ three-year goal to get under the $189 million luxury-tax threshold in 2014 is now all but impossible.
“This is an exclamation point that’s been made today that our work was not complete or finished in terms of trying to put in a team that people could at least talk about having a shot to take a run at qualifying for the playoffs and playing into October,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said during a conference call.
Clearly, the Yankees decided the savings of $100 million over three years — what they believed was possible — should they get under the $189 million threshold was not as important to the overall health of the organization as doing all they could to be contenders in 2014.
Essentially, the Yankees cannot tolerate missing the playoffs. They did so in 2008 and responded by spending $423.5 million on three big free agents: CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett.
Last season, they missed the playoffs for just the second time since 1994, and responded by guaranteeing $458 million (including the Tanaka posting fee) to four major free agents: Tanaka, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran. Add in the re-signing of free agents Derek Jeter and Hiroki Kuroda and the signing of four secondary free agents and the outlay is $503 million.
While Cashman acknowledged there are still questions regarding the bullpen and the infield, he doesn’t anticipate making any more high-priced additions, saying he didn’t think it’s “realistic that any more heavy lifting can take place.”
The Yankees believe Tanaka, because he is just 25, can pitch at the top of a rotation for years to come. They hope that combined with Sabathia, Kuroda and Ivan Nova, they now have a powerful front four with which to challenge for a championship in 2014. It also gives them a bit more cover to bring back Michael Pineda and Manuel Banuelos from injury to potentially deepen the starting group.
They scouted pretty much every one of Tanaka’s starts last year. A few weeks back, they sent an eight-person contingent to Los Angeles to meet face to face with Tanaka and his representative, Casey Close.
The group was Cashman, team president Randy Levine, manager Joe Girardi, pitching coach Larry Rothschild, assistant GM Jean Afterman, assistant GM Billy Eppler, translator George Rose and Trey Hillman. Hillman was hired this offseason to work in the Yankees minor league system, but he managed in Japan from 2003-07.
During the two-plus hour visit, they showed Tanaka a video, giving what Cashman said was a virtual tour of Yankee Stadium, since they couldn’t show him the real thing. They also included a sales pitch from Hideki Matsui.
The Yankees, Dodgers and Cubs were the finalists for Tanaka, and in recent days the Yankees were told they had to up their bid from six years to seven or else they could not land Tanaka. They did so.
Tanaka’s contract will pay him $22 million in each of the first six seasons and $23 million in the seventh. Cashman said he was told the Yankees’ offer was the highest and that because of the secrecy surrounding the negotiations, he had “no sense” until Tuesday night they were close to finalizing a deal.
Tanaka can opt out after the 2017 campaign, and that opt-out provision was a mandate from the Tanaka side. Close, in the past 13 months, also got opt-outs in long-term pitching deals with the Dodgers for Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw.
Tanaka also receives a $35,000 moving allowance, an annual $100,000 housing allowance to be used in New York or near the team’s spring training facility in Tampa, Fla., and an interpreter of the pitcher’s choice at an $85,000 yearly salary.
In addition to his own flight to the U.S., Tanaka annually will be provided four first-class round trip tickets between New York and Japan.
Cashman also acknowledged the risk involved with the signing, especially given Tanaka’s workload in Japan.
“You always have concerns,” Cashman said. “That’s something you can’t ignore. But with his age and talent and the pitching market the way it is, you take risks.”