While Masahiro Tanaka’s comparable pitchers, according to Baseball Reference.com, are the likes of Hisashi Iwakuma, Tanner Roark, Michael Wacha, Atley Donald and Sonny Gray, his contract us comparable, according Kento Mizuno of pinstripealley.com, to Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez and CC Sabathia.
Today as Tanaka takes the mound for the sixth season in Yankee pinstripes, fans believe they’ve gotten the best of what Tanaka has had to offer over the past five seasons and they’ve gotten plenty of bang for their buck out of the deal.
Tanaka’s suffered through a partially torn UCL, and his fastball, according to Mizuno, which had been his greatest asset in Japan, became his Achilles’s heel in Major League Baseball as he was victimized by the long ball. Mizuno says:
“Tanaka has found a way to make it work. He’s relied on his splitter, the best in the world, along with a top-notch slider and two-seam fastball. He’s done it by living at and around the edges of the strike zone, knowing when to coax hitters into fishing below their knees, and when to freeze them with a pitch on the black. And while Tanaka has certainly thrown fewer innings over the course of his Yankees career than we had all hoped, his impressive fWAR total speaks to the actual quality of those innings. He’s been worth every penny of his contract, one of the largest in MLB history.”
Tanaka is coming off of a 27 start, 3.75 ERA in ’18 in which he went 12-6 in 156.0 innings. Tanaka is the best big game pitcher on the Yankees staff. He now has a career 1.50 playoff ERA, not allowing more than two runs in any of his four starts.
Tanaka has posted excellent numbers for K/9 and BB/9:
“For two straight seasons, he has posted a K/9 over 9.0 and a BB/9 near 2.0. His 19.5 K-BB% last year was the 18th best and higher than Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, and Noah Syndergaard. The righties hinderance will always be the home runs he allows (1.3 HR/9 for his career, 1.4 last season).”
Tanaka is projected to put up very similar numbers this season and to stay at that peak level of performance. He is projected for a 11-7 win season with a 3.93 ERA and 1.36 HR/9, 2.10 BB/9, and 8.69 K/9.
Yankee fans can look for another solid season out of Tanaka.
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