Tag Archives: Tomoyuki Sugano

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Tanaka coming home

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2-year, $17 million

Masahiro Tanaka will return to the Rakuten Eagles of Japan’s Pacific League for the 2021 season on a two-year deal worth a reported 900 million ($8.6 million) Kyodo News (Japanese) reported after the club announced the signing.

Because Japanese contracts are not made public, their value is subject to speculation. This month, Yomiuri Giants ace Tomoyuki Sugano reportedly signed for 800 million after he declined offers to sign with an MLB club via the posting system. That figure is being touted as a record for Japanese pro ball, but it’s not verifiable.

In a tweet that included a picture of him looking over the Eagles’ home ballpark while wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned on the back with “New York,” Tanaka said:

“At this time, I’ve accepted a contract from the Rakuten Eagles. I’d like to let you know my feelings and what led to this decision to play in Japan at the press conference we have planned.”

–Masahiro Tanaka

Eagles General Manager Kazuhisa Ishii confirmed Tuesday according to Kyodo News (Japanese) that talks have been proceeding but that nothing official has been offered. However, a Sponichi Annex story on Wednesday reported the team has already offered Tanaka a one-year contract, and that further details, including additional years, are now being hammered out.

Speaking to media this week, Ishii told reporters that the No. 18, typically associated with being an ace pitcher in Japan was Tanaka’s right.

“The Eagles’ No. 18 belongs to no one else but Tanaka,” Ishii said.

Tanaka turned pro with the Eagles out of high school. He won 28-straight regular season decisions from 2012 through the end of the 2013 season. After Daisuke Matsuzaka and Yu Darvish had each attracted $50-million posting of fees, Tanaka was poised to earn the Eagles a windfall of perhaps twice that much until MLB backed out of the posting agreement and capped the Eagles’ fee at $20 million.

Tanaka, stung by that, suggested he contribute to the team financially for which he was rebuked by MLB for a potential violation of the posting agreement terms. Since he moved to the New York Yankees in 2014, he has trained each winter at the Eagles’ facility.

When the pandemic shut down MLB’s training camps last March, Tanaka remained in Florida with his family, but returned abruptly to Japan, suggesting only that the move was out of concern for his family’s safety — both from the virus and other issues.

Read Kyodo News’ English story.

With spring training due to start in Japan’ on Monday, Feb. 1, Ishii said according to the Kyodo story that Tanaka would likely arrive in camp prior to the start of the first preseason game on Feb. 23

Tanaka will be in store for some of the added pressure that dogged the Eagles in 2011, after much of the region was devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left in excess of 15,000 dead and triggered a nuclear disaster.

The story was first reported by Sankei Sports, which said that team president Yozo Tachibana had been involved.

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Sugano’s wake

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Perhaps it was a slow news week, because Sunday’s headlines were filled with people giving opinions worth two yen on the meaning of Tomoyuki Sugano’s return to Japan rather than sign the contract that would have moved him closer to achieving his goal of pitching in the majors.

On Jan. 14, Sugano signed a contract reportedly worth a little less than $8 million a year and it is said that incentives could bring it’s total value close to $10 million.

Since before Sugano’s posting-system deadline, people have been telling me that if you want to go, you go, no “ifs”, “ands” or “buts.” But at this online press conferences on Jan. 10 and again on Jan. 14, the normally ultra-poised Sugano was said to have gotten frosty at some of the questions.

I’ve heard from people who tell me Sugano is crazy to think next year he’ll be in a better situation, and who laugh at any suggestion that his principle motivation for coming back was money.

Blowhard and hard ass former manager Tatsuro Hirooka expressed satisfaction that Sugano had turned down offers from MLB teams that look down on Japanese talent. In December, if anyone doubted Hirooka’s serious old fart credentials, he proved them by saying Sugano lacks sufficient love for the Giants — as proved by his request to be posted.

Perhaps I’m no different. I, too, see Sugano’s decision as a symbol for something bigger, his right to choose. A lot of players have had spectacular fulfilling careers in Japan. For all its faults and flaws, it is still a wonderful place to live and work.

To see Sugano’s decision as symbolic of a failure on his part or of Japan’s superiority is ludicrous. We don’t all make the right decisions, I certainly don’t. But who the heck are we to say we know what is best for Sugano and then ridicule him for making up his own mind?

I don’t pretend to know what would be best for his life and for his personal happiness, growth, health and satisfaction, so I’ll share what he said on the 14th:

“Some are of the opinion that if you go over via the posting system, you should take what you are offered. The decision is mine, because it’s my life.”

–Tomoyuki Sugano

I would have loved to see how well Sugano would have done, but I think he knows a hell of a lot more about what is in his best interest than I do.