Friday, October 11, 2013

Red Sox May Battle Empire For Japanese Hurler

Masahiro Tanaka
As we reported back on September 17th, the Red Sox are extremely interested in 24-year old Japanese pitching ace Masahiro Tanaka. The right-hander recently set the Japanese baseball record for 21 straight wins in a single season. New reports suggest that—in addition to competition from Texas and the Dodgers—The Evil Empire will also be submitting a bid in the infamous "posting" process. The fee to earn the right to talk to Tanaka is rumored to be in the $60 million neighborhood. Of course, the winner of that battle still needs to negotiate an actual contract with the player—a 'la Daisuke Matsuaka. Speaking of Dice-K, it will be interesting to see whether that experience will dampen Boston's desire to enter the high-stakes bidding for Tanaka.