You needn’t wonder how the New York Yankees reacted when Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka was finally put up for auction Tuesday night (delirium) or what the battle plan promises to be (outbid the world).
The real intrigue began Thursday when at least half a dozen teams began their pursuit of the right-hander, including the impossibly rich Loa Angeles Dodgers and world champion Boston Red Sox.
Of course, the Yankees’ greatest weapon is their money and a willingness to spend it. The window for negotiating with Tanaka extends to Jan. 24, by which time the Yankees will know how much of Alex Rodriguez’s $27 million will be on or off the books for 2014.
Officials at the commissioner’s office are expecting a ruling on A-Rod’s appeal by early January, possibly right after New Year’s. Most everyone in the industry believes Fredric Horowitz will rule against Rodriguez - that is, he won’t start the season in pinstripes.
Whether the punishment sticks at 211 games, is lowered to 150 or anything in between, it shouldn’t deter the Yankees from addressing the obvious crater in their roster. They need to make Tanaka an offer he can’t refuse.
If it means crashing past the $189 million threshold, blowing it to smithereens, in fact, then so be it. The Yankees can’t afford a second consecutive year of not making the playoffs, not after the hit they took in attendance and TV ratings. Without Tanaka, the Yankees are headed for another 85-victory season and another dark October. With Tanaka, they have a chance to be a 90-victory team again.
If the international scouts are right, Tanaka and his signature pitch, the 90-mph splitter, will give the Yankees a legitimate Game 1 starter in the playoffs, someone who can match up against the other team’s ace. CC Sabathia is no longer that pitcher; he hasn’t been for at least two years.
So what is stopping the Yankees from blowing out their ecosystem? Believe it or not, officials are at least flirting with the idea of staying under $189 million, which will happen if and when they shed A-Rod’s salary.
The Steinbrenner family has been working for two years to reach this goal and are at least discussing punting on 2014, reaping the savings of a lower tax penalty in 2015 and then cleaning up in subsequent free-agent shopping sprees.
But that presumes the class of 2015 - including Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer and Justin Masterson, to name a few - will still be available. It’s a risk, considering the industry’s trend toward keeping megastars, especially pitchers, away from the open market.
Granted, the Yankees have flushed tens of millions in luxury-tax penalties with little to show for it. They have won exactly one world championship since 2000, and only then because of the checks they wrote to Sabathia, A.J. Burnett (Central Arkansas Christian and North Little Rock) and Mark Teixeira in 2009.
You can’t indict Hal Steinbrenner for not being his father. If the family has grown tired of watching their money vanish, remember that the cash is theirs, not ours.
But it’s also true that the younger Steinbrenners have been saying all the right things about returning the Yankees to their past glory. If it’s an act, it’s been a convincing one. While they allowed Robinson Cano, their best offensive and defensive player, to defect to the Mariners with minimal resistance, the Yankees have still upgraded the offense with Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann and Jacoby Ellsbury.
This is hardly punting on 2014.
In fact, the Yankees, who scored a pathetic 650 runs in 2013, last in the East, figure to be a much improved offensive team this season. They are going to be involved in more than a few high-scoring games.
That’s fine, especially in the American League, but someone has to ultimately match up with the better pitchers in the league. If it’s not Sabathia, who? Not Hiroki Kuroda, who will be 39 going into this season. Not Ivan Nova, the living, breathing enigma.
The answer is calling out to the Yankees from the Far East. Tanaka has all the credentials of a difference maker. One Yankee elder said he could be a “once in a generation” type ace.
That’s why the money has to flow freely out of the Steinbrenner coffers, because it’s precisely what the Yankees have going for them: Cash, a connection with Japanese players past and present, and a good deal of desperation.
The Yankees must act decisively, spend freely - no, spend exorbitantly - and make sure this is one battle they don’t lose.
If someone in that front office believes they can’t afford to sign Tanaka, the truth is, they can’t afford not to.
Sports, Pages 18 on 12/27/2013