It’s still not a done deal that Japanese ace Masahiro Tanaka is going to be posted by his team the Rakuten Golden Eagles. The team isn’t thrilled at all with the posting system being capped at $20 million. They had been envisioning three or possibly four times that for their ace. It is a bit of a slap in the face at Japanese baseball, almost calling it a feeder league to the MLB. But what’s bad for Japanese baseball is good for Tanaka and good for the MLB teams. With bids maxed out at $20 million that means every team, yes even the Mets, can afford to put in a bid for Tanaka.
Of course it’s going to take more than the bid to land Tanaka. He is a rare commodity a, young, highly regarded Japanese pitcher hitting the open market. Tanaka is 25, was 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA last year. For his career (which started at 18) he is 99 and 35 with a 2.30 ERA. He’s a good pitcher. Most scouts project him as a solid number two starter. Pretty much everybody agrees that whoever signs Tanaka is going to have to spend north of $100 million. Not sure the Mets are willing to spend that kind of money on anybody.
The Mets management has shown that for certain deals they have been willing to spend. They’ve actually been a little manic this winter. They were willing to deal out $60 million for four years of Curtis Granderson. They were willing to do $20 million for two years of Bartolo Colon. Yet so far they have been unwilling to bite the bullet on shortstop Stephen Drew. Drew would be an upgrade at short for the Mets but so far he wants either more money or more years than the Mets are willing to give a 30-year-old short stop. So it doesn’t look like Drew will happen. But should the Mets be willing spend big and take the risk with Tanaka? This is certainly a big-ticket item – a high-risk, high-reward type of deal.
As a fan, I look at this as a nice potential move for the Mets. For nothing but money the Mets land a young, top of the rotation starter. This wouldn’t be a Bartolo Colon “here and now” type of deal, this would be something for the long term. Looking into 2015 the Mets could have Matt Harvey, Tanaka, Zach Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard, Rafael Montero, Bartolo Colon, Jonathon Niese and Dillion Gee. That’s eight starters, probably two more than the Mets will need. Tanaka on board would give the Mets the flexibility to trade for another need in 2015 (hopefully that still won’t be shortstop). The Mets most likely won’t be serious bidders for Tanaka, but I wish they would be. From what I’ve read Tanaka is a real competitor and he loves the big stage. Not many stages bigger than New York City.
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As a fan I would love to see Choo in right field and Carlos Gonzalez in left and Ellsbury in center field. But realistically unless you can loan the Wilpons 20 million where are they supposed to come up with the money? What’s your point? You know the team is just about capped out with payroll and you still have an expectation that the Mets can come up with an additional 50-60 million dollars. John there is no potential here. Just incredibly wishful thinking.
Actually, if my movie does well I will consider the loan. Fingers crossed. Yes, I guess it is wishful thinking the Mets would start acting like a team that is in a major market.
But yes this was “pie in sky”. It’s the holidays time to think about whimsical happy things. Not the fact that everything will have to break right for Mets for them to finish third again this year.
I dont get it at all. We haveplenty of pitching depth, and Tanaka will run 120M$. Furthermore, with being competitive beginning in ’15 and more likely ’16, why on earth dump such a major amount of cash for the only position we have genuine depth at. Lets remember we have Hef too, who could possibly be in the starting rotation.
Lets see, we have not a single MLB-level person at 1B. We have no SS. We have a marginal guy at 2B.
If Im dumping money, then it better be for something we need.
Mark it down – I’m predicting Murphy has a top 10 MVP year in 2014, and is the starting 2B for the NL in the all-star game. This is the year he puts it ALL together.
He has the ability. Like they say some times the best trades are the ones you don’t make.
That would include his lack of defense. Right?
his defense more than passed the eye test as the season progressed. i expect a big year all around
I haven’t looked at his fielding stats but he appears to be an average fielding second baseman.
I know that if you post a bid and you don’t sign him you don’t have to pay the posting fee, but do you have to put some money down to post? If not, there’s no harm in the Mets just posting the 20 million to talk to him, though I highly doubt we’d be able to get something done.