Baseball

Ex-ace Masahiro Tanaka, Tohoku Rakuten Eagles Part Ways

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Masahiro Tanaka smiles during the Eagles’ spring camp in Okinawa in February.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:55 JST, November 25, 2024

Veteran right-hander Masahiro Tanaka, facing a massive pay cut from the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles, asked for and was granted his release Sunday from the team that he led to its lone Japan pro baseball championship.

The 36-year-old Tanaka, who spent seven seasons with the New York Yankees before rejoining Rakuten in 2021, requested his release after the club made an offer for next season that exceeded the limit of a 40% reduction for contracts over 100 million yen.

The right-hander appeared in just one Pacific League game this past season for the Eagles, and ended with no victories for the first time in his combined 18 seasons in Japan and the major leagues. He remains three wins short of a combined 200 for his career.

“I didn’t agree to a contract for next season and have decided to look for a new team,” Tanaka said in a video message on his YouTube channel. “My current condition is good and I am able to get in good training.”

Rakuten’s first-round draft pick in 2006 out of Komadai Tomakomai High School in Hokkaido, Tanaka had arguably the greatest-ever season for a pitcher in Japan in 2013, when he won a record 24 games to start the season and finished 24-0 in 28 starts with a 1.27 earned run average.

That year, he helped the Eagles win both their first-ever Pacific League pennant and Japan Series title since being founded in 2004.

The next year, Tanaka made the jump across the Pacific to the Yankees, where he posted double-digit wins in six of his seven seasons. Since returning to Rakuten, he compiled a 20-33 record over four seasons.

Tanaka has a career record in Japan of 119-68 with a 2.67 earned run average and 1,572 strikeouts in 1,778 innings.