Yakult Rejects Masahiro Tanaka: “Not Needed” Due to Lack of Value as a Player

2024.12/3 11:55
On the 2nd, the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization (NPB) announced its free agents. Rakuten pitcher Masahiro Tanaka (36), who had already announced his departure due to being offered a pay cut that exceeded the limit set by the baseball agreement (40% for annual salaries of 100 million yen or more), was also on the list, and is now free to negotiate with other teams. Although he wishes to continue playing in the NPB, with a number of teams showing a reluctant attitude towards making offers, it has been learned that Yakult has decided not to make an effort to acquire him. (Kentaro Tsukasawa)
Tanaka announced his departure from Rakuten on November 24th. While some reports have mentioned Yakult as a possible destination, GM Ogawa Junichi has only said, “We are looking into it, but we are not at the stage where we are looking into acquiring him,” and has not explicitly denied the possibility. On the day he was announced as a free agent and negotiations for his acquisition were allowed, a Yakult executive said, “We’re not going to acquire him. His pitching this year has been completely poor and we have decided he is not a valuable asset, so we will not be making any moves.” “He will be difficult to use, and even if we acquire him, it won’t be of any benefit to the team,” he continued. As for the reason why the Yakult name has taken on a life of its own up until now, the executive said, “I think he wants to play in Tokyo. In that case, it’s just us and the Giants. “We don’t have enough pitchers, so maybe he thought this was his chance,” it seems, is how Tanaka’s intentions were reflected in some of the reports. Tanaka is three wins away from reaching 200 wins in total in Japan and the United States. If he joins, he will be a hot topic starting from next spring’s training camp, and there is no doubt that achieving this feat will benefit the team’s sales. However, in his only first-team appearance of the season on September 28th against Orix, he gave up four runs in five innings. When he took the mound in an Eastern League game against Yakult on August 24th, during which he gave up four runs in the middle of the fifth inning, one of the managers who checked his pitching recalled that he seemed far from his prime, saying, “When he threw with all his might, he could throw at close to 150 km/h, but he mostly just avoided the batters with curveballs, which was completely different from the image we had of him before.” It seems that some teams are hesitant to acquire him due to the difficulty of handling him as a big name, but the fact that Yakult, which is plagued by a chronic shortage of starting pitchers, has judged him to be “not a valuable reinforcement” based solely on ability may be a bigger shock to Tanaka.

田中将大〝要らない〟ヤクルト幹部「戦力として使えない」と撤退　有力と見られていたが…実力本位で判断された事実（1/2ページ）

日本野球機構（NPB）は2日、自由契約選手を公示。野球協約の制限（年俸1億円以上は40％）を超える減額を提示されたため、すでに退団を表明していた楽天・田中将…

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