On Tuesday, ormer New York Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka explained his reasons for leaving the Rakuten Eagles as an unsigned free agent rather than staying on with his only pro club in Japan and taking a huge pay cut.
“It’s a fact that I got the offer (for the new season), but it left me feeling I was surplus to the team’s needs,” Tanaka told reporters at Rakuten Mobile Park Miyagi, two days after he made the surprise announcement on his YouTube channel without any reference to an offer from the team.
Spring training starts today, unless you play for the Seibu Lions, who have said their camp will open in Feb. 6 in Miyazaki “because this is a WBC year,” although the logic of that seems to have escaped nearly everyone outside the organization.
Speaking of the WBC, Yu Darvish gave Japan some good news in what has been a spring of uncertainty about when its MLB players will be available. There is also some news about an umpire who decided to make some extra money on the side and who is now out of work, and words from some managers ahead of Japan’s first day of pro baseball training.
