{"id":12381,"date":"2024-11-25T14:08:24","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T14:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=12381"},"modified":"2024-11-25T14:08:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T14:08:24","slug":"ex-yankees-fan-favorite-cut-by-team-hits-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=12381","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Yankees Fan Favorite Cut by Team, Hits Free Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-featured-container-id\">\n<div id=\"post-featured\">\n<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1331550263-e1732533630660.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 820px) 95vw, 780px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1331550263-e1732533630660.jpg?quality=65&amp;strip=all&amp;w=780 780w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1331550263-e1732533630660.jpg?quality=15&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1100 1100w, https:\/\/heavy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/GettyImages-1331550263-e1732533630660.jpg?quality=35&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1350 1350w\" alt=\"Ex-Yankees Fan Favorite Cut by Team, Hits Free Agency\" width=\"780\" height=\"437\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Getty Yankees fan favorite Masahiro Tanaka<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>For Yankees fans, there is no reminder needed that the years from 2009, the last time the Yankees won a championship, to 2024, their next World Series appearance, were a tumultuous time. It matched the longest stretch without a Fall Classic appearance in a century, and was marred by some very down years and some postseason heartbreak.<\/p>\n<p>One of the players who was in the midst of it all was a guy who pretty much took the ball whenever he was asked and gobbled up innings as a starter, a guy who passed on an opportunity to get preemptive surgery on a balky elbow because it would be a dishonorable thing to do. One who was beloved by fans for his quiet professionalism\u2013in New York?!\u2013and by teammates for his off-field demeanor.<\/p>\n<p>That would be, of course, Masahiro Tanaka, the Japanese star who signed a $155 million contract to join the Yankees before the 2014 season and went on to go 78-46 with a 3.74 ERA in the seven years that followed.<\/p>\n<p>His gutsy performance against Cleveland in the 2017 ALDS, which rescued that postseason for the Yankees, \u201cdeepened Tanaka\u2019s already solid standing as a Yankees fan favorite,\u201d Newsday wrote this year.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Yankees\u2019 Masahiro Tanaka Returned to Japan<\/h2>\n<p>Alas, Tanaka rode into New York on a wave of hype, pitched much of his career despite the elbow injury, and rode out when his contract was up after the Covid-19 shortened 2020 season. His stuff had waned, and the Yankees were ready to move on. Tanaka had other offers to remain in MLB, but decided to return to Japan and his old team, Rakuten, for whom he\u2019d gone 24-0 in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>But the elbow problem stayed with him and Tanaka\u2019s conditioning was an issue. He\u2019s gone 20-35 in four years back with Rakuten, and was 0-3 with just six starts in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>This week, Rakuten announced it was cutting ties with Tanaka.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, via the Japan Times, the team noted, \u201cas the result of discussions with the player\u201d Tanaka would not be included on the team\u2019s list of players eligible for contracts next season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And Tanaka said on his YouTube channel, \u201cI will not be signing a contract with the Rakuten Eagles for next year. I have decided to look for a new team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t expect to see Tanaka back in MLB, of course. But here\u2019s hoping he gets healthy for one last run in Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including &#8220;Fun City,&#8221; &#8220;Before Wrigley became Wrigley,&#8221; and &#8220;Facing Michael Jordan.&#8221; More about Sean Deveney<\/p>\n<h2>More Heavy on Yankees News<\/h2>\n<p>Loading more stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yankees fan favorite Masahiro Tanaka left New York four years ago but had a bumpy return to his old Japanese team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ex-Yankees Fan Favorite Cut by Team, Hits Free Agency - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=12381\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-Yankees Fan Favorite Cut by Team, Hits Free Agency - 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