From the time pitchers and catchers report next month until the end of October, you will hear a lot about Masahiro Tanaka’s contract and his opt-out clause.
Will he or won’t he? The debate is already raging. There seems to be an inevitability to the opt-out, but there is a different reality shaping up for Tanaka and it has everything to do with that teeny tiny whole in his elbow.
“There is no way he’s opting out,” one team executive told me.
“I think he’d be nuts to opt out,” a veteran scout said to me.