The narrative of the 2017 season, aside from all things Baby Bombers, will be the worry over Masahiro Tanaka enacting his opt-out clause come next fall — whenever it is that the Yankees season comes to an end.
As I’ve written about in the past, this is all contingent upon Tanaka not only having another stellar campaign as he did in 2016 but more importantly, staying healthy. If Tanaka honors the remainder of his deal, he’s looking at 3-years/$67M. While that’s nothing to shake a stick at, it’s nowhere close to what fellow countryman Yu Darvish of the Rangers could be looking at this offseason.