Best and worst of the offseason

This has to be one of the most interesting off seasons for the Yankees, the Yankees spent almost half a billion dollars but lost their best player and still have glaring holes on the team. Its hard to narrow this down to the best and worst moves by the Yankee's this off season because as with most new contracts it really depends on how they will play out than on how it looks right now. Look at the Jesus Montero for Michael Pineada trade, that has changed whose won several times and Pineada has not actually pitched for the Yankees yet.

Best Move: Masahiro Tanaka
I said in our offseason podcast that I thought that signing Tanaka was the most important part of the off season and that if it came down to Cano or Tanaka that it was more important for them to sign Tanaka and apparently the Yankees agreed with me because they let Cano walk and signed Tanaka. Tanaka provides the Yankees with what they needed a young pitcher with high upside and while he has a risk of flopping it seems very unlikely as the Yankees have been scouting him for 7 years.We will have to wait and see how Tanaka adjusts to the MLB but it was truly a move that the Yankees needed to make if they want to contend in the very competitive AL East let alone vie for another World Series title.


Worst Move: Carlos Beltran
This is one that everyone seems to love but I really am not enthused about it. They gave Beltran at 36 three years this off season when they could have signed Nick Swisher for his age 32-35 seasons last off season. I know that Swisher did not hit well in the postseason but you have to get to the off season first and we have no idea if Beltran is going to be able to last all season while Swisher has always been a model of consistency.In the end though its crying over spilled milk from a year ago, but there was a better move than Beltran that the Yankees could have done and that was signing Shin-Soo Choo who like Swisher is a high walk guy who can hit 20+ HR a year, he isn't a switch hitter like Beltran or Swisher and his platoon split isn't very good but guys who walk a lot don't stop doing it as they age and that power and patience is exactly what the Yankees look for in a player. instead the Yankees gave three years to Beltran based largely on the fact that he has been great in the postseason, which is significant but I don't know if he will last to the postseason and with an aging roster I do not want the Yankees to have to be trying to get him in the lineup two years from now when his knees are shot but he, Teixeira and McCann all need time at the DH spot. Beltran is a bat only player at this point as his defense has declined due to being old and his walk rate has steadily declined with a career worst 6.3%  walk rate last season. Also as great as Beltran has been as a switch hitter last season he hit only .251 against LHP and recorded only 7 walks in 171 PA and so he is unlikely to help a lineup that looks like it will be weak against lefties. Beltran may bust out and have an amazing season but it honestly seems like this deal is likely to be an overpay and leave fans disappointed.

Masahiro Tanaka signs with the Yankees

(Koji Watanabe/Getty)

The Yankees signed 25 year old Masahiro Tanaka to a seven year $155 million contract on top of the twenty million dollar posting fee that they will pay to his former club. At various times it was being reported that Tanaka was close to signing with the Cubs and the Dodgers but the Yankees came in and got their man. The deal is already final as the Yankees officially announced the signing and they DFA David Huff to clear a spot.  This also blows the $189 million plan out the window, but that was kind of to be figured as the Yankees lost a lot of money in ticket revenue last season and they probably figured out that using their monetary advantage was a good thing. Most people have heard about his great numbers in Japan including going 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA average last season in 27 starts and you should check out his numbers here but simply put Tanaka will not be as good in the US as he was in Japan. I guarantee you that in his first bad start people will say that he isn't good enough for the MLB and will call him the next Kei Igawa but almost every pitcher struggles when they first move up a level and even the great and powerful Yu Darvish struggled at times in his first MLB season. Don't bother comparing him to Yu Darvish or Dice-K or any other Japanese pitcher because he is different from all of them and will show that over the course of what I am sure will be a fantastic Yankee career.
In a slightly different note Tanaka may very well end up being the youngest player on the Yankees, he is younger than Preston Claiborne and Dellin Betances and that's very much due to the fact that the farm system has produced very little talent the last few years and the Yankees are so old that they all drink prune juice and tell those damn hooligan teenagers to get off their lawns. Aparently the Yankees have been scouting Tanaka since he debuted at the tender age of 18 in Japan and lets hope that it will pay off because the Yankees needed him and now they need him to be good because right now they still have weaknesses at the infield and in the bullpen and I do mean at the infield because they are basically relying on three bounce back seasons and Kelly Johnson to make a good infield.
Even with Tanaka the Yankees need a lot of things to go right as they will need a bounce back season from CC, Jeter, Teixeira, Brian Roberts and Ivan Nova and the bullpen none of which are a given, but as I said the Yankee are a lot better with Tanaka than they are without him. Brian Cashman has also said that he thinks this is the last major move for the Yankees but lets hope they can still acquire a quality bullpen arm so that David Robertson has some actual support in the earlier innings. Now all we have to do is wait and see what number Tanaka takes as I doubt Kuroda is going to give up 18, Tanaka did wear 17 in the World baseball classic but I am kind of hoping he takes 24.

Tanaka over Kuroda

(Koji Watanabe/Getty)

Hiroki Kuroda was the Yankees best starter this year and he would have been an all-star this year if Jim Lelyland had the sense to see that win-loss isn't important but I guess neither is bringing in a lefty to face David Ortiz. The fact of the matter though is that Kuroda is winding down his career and may in fact retire, so he doesn't really hep the rotation long term. However Kuroda is proven in the MLB while Tanaka isnt and everyone fears the Japanese player coming over and busting like Kei Igawa or underperformed like Dice-K or Hideki Irabu and so Japanese players become untouchable to them. In fact the Yankees subscribed to this logic after getting burned by Igawa and so they did not want to pursue Yu Darvish, but with their plan to get under the $189 million budget Tanaka is someone they should definitely go after. The Yankees have a definite interest in him as they have sent their top evaluators to watch him pitch, which is definitely a step up from their scouting of Igawa which as essentially none, but with Tanaka they reportedly have been to almost all of his starts. First off Tanaka would need to be posted and that posting fee would not apply against the luxury tax and while the posting system may change this off season as the MLB and NPB renegotiate the system, I doubt very much that the posting fee will apply to the Luxury tax after the negotiations.
 Secondly Tanaka has been fantastic in Japan, posting a 1.24 ERA with a WHIP of 0.934 and his career numbers are all excellent, especially considering he made his debut in 2007 when he was 18 and it wasn't a cup of coffee either he pitched 28 starts and threw 186 innings that season. Via Ben Badler Tanaka reportedly sits in the low-90s with a fastball that touches 96, with a low-80s slider and a mid-80s splitter, the splitter is apparently very common is the Asia Leagues. Badler says scouts have some concern because he doesn’t get good plane on the pitch and it’s more hittable than the velocity suggests, which is why he is profiled as a number 2 and solid contributor rather than a Cy Young contender. Kuroda isnt a Cy Young contender but that doesn't somehow invalidate him as a pitcher, the Yankees need solid pitchers and while Kuroda has already proven that he can be a solid contributor, Tanaka could be one for years to come and could do so at a much lower cost than signing Matt Garza. There are so many people out there who say that the Yankees shouldn't do it because he might be the next Igawa, but you know what so might Matt Garza or Tim Lincecum and the Yankees (and their fans) should not refuse to acknowledged this guy because they are afraid of what happened before. There have been some very successful Korean and Japanese imports outside of the notable failures of others as Iwakuma, Ryu and Darvish all had great seasons. This is the simple fact of the matter the Yankees farm system has failed to develop one impact player outside of Brett Gardner or the bullpen since Robinson Cano and they need to catch up, signing Tanaka would be a huge way to catch up, he rotation could suddenly become a plus. The title of this article is honestly a bit misleading as I don't even think the Yankees should really spurn Kuroda for Tanaka its just that if it comes down to it I would much rather have Tanaka for the next several years than to hold on to Kuroda for one more year.