Seven years ago, one of the biggest headlines in MLB free agency was who was going to land Masahiro Tanaka. The then 25-year-old was posted by the Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league. Coming out of Japan, Tanaka was known for his splitter and was viewed as a top of the rotation starter.
As we know, the Yankees ended up winning the sweepstakes inking Tanaka to a seven year $155 million contract. Fast forward, the 32-year-old has done everything and more for the organization. From 2015-2017, he was the ace until Luis Severino briefly claimed that role, then Gerrit Cole arrived in New York.