Jeff Pasan tweeted earlier today that the Rangers were doing "background work" on Masahiro Tanaka:



Adam J. Morris at Lone Star Ball opines that the Rangers interest in Tanaka probably isn't any more significant than it already was, but that the more interesting part of the news is that the Rangers may be signalling to Choo that they don't consider him such a high priority that they wouldn't shift their attention, and their money, elsewhere.

I don't see the Rangers actually signing Tanaka if the speculation on his contract requirements turns out to be true. With the lower posting fee, Tanaka will likely end up getting a larger contract than Darvish. However, the consensus on Tanaka's abilities seem to rank him as a middle-of-the-rotation starter who *might* be good enough to be a consistent #2 man. Darvish, by comparison, was considered a potential #1 from the outset. And while the Rangers' rotation looks pretty solid (easily one of the ten best in baseball, and probably a bit better than that), they really need more OPS. Choo is a light slugger, but makes up for it with one of the best OBPs in MLB.

On the other hand, let's say you can get Tanaka for the $20m posting fee plus $80 million for six years. That's $16.7 million average annual value for a MOTR starter, a price many teams would gladly pay. It's good enough, in fact, that if Tanaka is only "good-ish" rather than "good" or even "great"; the Rangers would be able to move that contract pretty easily...something they won't be able to do as easily if they give a big, long contract to Shin-soo Choo.

Posted by: Ben at 12:40 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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