When the Yankees signed Masahiro Tanaka to a seven-year $155 million contract, it was the best thing they could have done at the time. He was dominant, young, and healthy. Then when the full terms were released, Tanaka had an opt-out clause after the 2017 season and I was pretty unhappy about it. I've never much cared for player-controlled opt-out clauses because it has the team taking on all the risk–if he's good, he goes, if he's bad or hurt, you're stuck with him. Recently, the market has changed a bit and now, as long-term contracts were hitting their tipping points at eight-year deals for pitchers, opt-out clauses were introduced as a way to prevent things from getting any crazier.
Are the Yankees setting themselves up for another opt-out clause disaster?
