The Rakuten Golden Eagles made an official announcement about the return of pitcher Masahiro Tanaka. The 32-year old pitcher returns from New York where he spend seven years with the New York Yankees.
The 32-year old RHP has opted to return to Japan after the Yankees did not quite hurry to re-sign him. In fact they went another direction by trading for Jameson Taillon and signing Corey Kluber to a one-year contract.
In seven years with the Yankees, Tanaka posted a 78-46 record with a 3.74 ERA. Even though he was hit by the injury bug once in a while, Tanaka was very reliable.
The Rakuten Golden Eagles confirmed the signing with a tweet this morning.
In the seven years before he joined the Yankees, Tanaka flat out dominated the Pacific League, posting a 99-35 record with a 2.30 ERA. Especially his last season before being posted, he earned 24 wins and didn’t lose a game and had a 1.27 ERA. In that year, 2013, he was a big contributor to the Rakuten Eagles’ NPB championship.
The Golden Eagles signed Tanaka to a two-year contract, worth $17 million. Tanaka stated that he wanted to explain the reason why he returned to Japan in the upcoming press conference.
It is not clear yet when the press conference will be held.
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