In 2014, the New York Yankees appeared to be a surefire lock to sign Masahiro Tanaka when he was posted by the Rakuten Golden Eagles.
Although other teams such as the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox were engaged in trying to sign Tanaka, it seemed a forgone conclusion the Yankees would eventually sign him and they did, inking him to a five-year, $155 million deal. The deal was the fifth-largest to a pitcher at the time and mostly successful as Tanaka won 78 games while the Yankees transitioned from the veterans to Aaron Judge through the 2020 season.
Tanaka’s deal was also about $170 million less than what Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed with Dodgers in 2023 and the Yankees saw him dominate in Game 2 of the World Series.
Roki Sasaki will not get anywhere near the amount of money spent on Tanaka and Yamamoto because under MLB rules, he is considered to be an international free agent because he is under 25. He can get between roughly $5 to $8 million but it will not be money from the Yankees, whose moves to replace Juan Soto and improve their rotation give them a projected payroll of about $280 million.
On Monday, YES Network’s Jack Curry was the first to report the Yankees were out of the running for Sasaki and it was confirmed by other reports later in the day.
The Yankees did their typical recruiting pitch, something GM Brian Cashman noted discussed at last month’s Yankee Stadium press conference to introduce Max Fried.
“He’s obviously a tremendous talent,” GM Brian Cashman said last month. “No doubt about it, he has a chance to be one of the world’s great pitchers. It’d be nice to have Yankee Stadium be his home, but the decision will be up to him. All we can do is share everything and anything about ourselves and what we provide.”
Sasaki is coming to the major leagues with an announcement of his team coming as soon as this week. He is arriving with a fastball that tops 100 mph and is coming off being limited to 111 innings with the Chiba Lotte Marines because of shoulder inflammation.
FILE – Roki Sasaki of Japan pitches during their Pool B game against the Czech Republic at the World … [+]
He has enough of a track record to be the latest Japanese pitcher to come to the majors and his resume includes a perfect game on April 10, 2022, and followed it up with eight perfect innings in his next start to make it 52 straight hitters retired.
At this point the Yankees getting Sasaki would have been a bonus since they seemingly have a set rotation of Gerrit Cole, Fried, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt. It is a unit who contributed to the Yankees tying the Phillies for the major league-leading with 65 wins and a group whose 866 strikeouts were sixth in the majors and posted the 11th-best ERA at 3.85 even Cole missing the first 75 games with an elbow injury.
In 2014, it was somewhat of a necessity the Yankees signed Tanaka since the rotation was 55-63 with a 4.08 ERA in an injury-plagued 2013 season when the Yankees managed to get to 85 wins while missing the playoffs.
Sasaki also is not coming to the Mets, who probably could use him more than the Yankees. While the Mets had a similar ERA (3.91) from their starters as the Yankees.
The Mets already lost Luis Severino to a three-year deal from the A’s following his comeback season and added uncertainties in Frankie Montas and Clay Holmes to a rotation that includes David Peterson and Kodai Senga coming off two serious injuries. The good news for the Mets is their rotation includes Sean Manaea, who officially re-signed last month with a three-year, $75 million contract.
Manaea held his virtual press conference Monday afternoon about a half hour after the report of Sasaki not coming to the Yankee appeared and coming off winning 12 games and pitching a career-high 181 2/3 innings, the left-hander with a 2018 no-hitter to his name, spoke of returning to the Mets being a perfect fit for the baseball and familial aspects of things.
“What I’ve seen and been told, the day care stuff is really great, the communication between the wives and the organization has been incredible,” Manaea told reporters.
There is still a few weeks to go before spring training starts and even more time before the Yankees and Mets see Sasaki on the opposing mound. Until then the New York teams can go about their business of seeing what other moves they can make with fans of the Mets hoping it includes a new contract for Pete Alonso.
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