Happy About Masahiro Tanaka

I for one am happy that he didn’t allocate so much money to such an unproven commodity

Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports

Full disclaimer beforehand, This is going to be your typical “BAH, TANAKA, WHO REALLY WANTED HIM” post.

More Tanaka for you! Seriously though i’m really really glad the Dodgers went nowhere near the Japanese right hander’s demands of 7 YEARS 155 MILLION DOLLARS (plus a 20 million posting fee). I’ll be honest, I personally believed the Dodgers were going to nab him from the Yanks and add him in to the rotation that already included Kershaw, Greinke, Ryu, and Haren. I had it in my heart that Tanaka was going to be in Dodger blue come April.

I also believed the Dodgers shouldn’t have gone over Matt Cain‘s contract numbers of 7 years 139.75 million. A 20 million dollar pitcher is someone worth in the neighborhood of 21-23 wins above replacement over the course of the contract. Matt Cain, he of the perfect game throwers, is a decent  bet to be worth a deal that big. But of course Tanaka didn’t get Matt Cain money. Oh no, he got Felix Hernandez money. You know, the same Felix Hernandez that is more than likely the best right handed pitcher of his generation? In order for Tanaka to be worth that amount of money, he’d have to be worth somewhere between 25 and 29 wins above replacement across his 7 seasons in the Bronx.

Good luck with that, Yankees.

Oh but that’s not all, I came across a stunning fact. Rany Jazayerli put the Masahiro Tanaka deal in some outstanding context

So sure this is a bit lazy in saying he’s such a detriment counting the luxury tax hit. But it doesn’t make it any less stunning that a pitcher who has never thrown a pitch in the majors along with his prior mileage is going to cost his team in excess of 200 million dollars. Yes I realize you could say the same about the Dodgers had they have signed Tanaka, and you could say the same thing now about Kershaw, but there are a couple problems with that.

1) Ownership cares not for this type of spending.

2) The Dodgers  were overboard anyways.

Plus this 189 deal probably mattered way more for the Yankees. I don’t think the idea of project 189 was bogus, mainly because they would have signed Stephen Drew, Grant Balfour, Fernando Rodney, and also resigned Robinson Cano.

And what I found so hilarious about all this is even though they spent 491 MILLION DOLLARS on free agents this offseason, they still allowed their franchise 2b to walk from them, and now they’re forced to play Brian Roberts at 2b.

The Yankees are likely going to throw out Kelly Johnson, Derek Jeter, Brian Roberts, and a broken Mark Texeira behind Tanaka in the infield, it’ll be interesting to see how well he performs in New York, and i’m ecstatic he’s not a Dodger at what the Yankees gave him. Tanaka would have been an embarrassment of riches for the Dodgers. Let the jewels in the farm system shine for one. Oh and lets not forget about that criminally underrated former top prospect in Chad Billingsley, the Dodgers will be more than fine without Tanaka. I wish him the best of luck in New York, and i’m definitely rooting for him to be good, but his team to be awful.