Masahiro Tanaka's baseball journey is taking him from Japan to New York.
The Yankees, according to team co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner, have agreed to a seven-year deal with the Japanese starting pitcher worth $155 million US.
The deal is also believed to include an opt-out clause after the fourth season, allowing Tanaka to test free agency after his age-28 season.
Major league teams had until 5 p.m. ET on Friday to sign the star 25-year-old, whom the Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese Pacific League agreed to post in late December.
The two Chicago teams, Cubs and White Sox, along with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks were known to have made bids for Tanaka, who sported a 24-0 record and 1.27 earned-run average in 212 innings last season.
The Yankees, Dodgers and Cubs were said to be finalists for the right-hander, with New York bumping offer from six years to seven to secure a deal.
Recent reports suggested Tanaka's wife preferred to be on the West Coast, perhaps leading to the Yankees' willingness to extend the term of the contract.
New York has been very active this off-season, adding outfielders Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran along with catcher Brian McCann.
Steinbrenner said Wednesday that "we had to make sure we had enough pitching to go together with our new lineup."
In early December, the Yankees re-signed pitcher Hiroki Kuroda for one year, filling one of three holes in the rotation behind CC Sabathia and Ivan Nova. David Phelps and Michael Pineda are among the pitchers who will battle for the fifth-starter's job at spring training next month.
Tanaka's contract is the fifth-largest ever, behind Clayton Kershaw (seven years, $210M with Dodgers), Verlander (seven years, $180M with Detroit) , Felix Hernandez (seven years, $175M with Seattle) & Sabathia's original deal (eight years, $160M with Yankees).
In addition to his contract, New York is required to pay Rakuten a posting fee, now capped at $20 million US under a deal reached earlier this off-season between Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball.
Under the old, no-limit system, the Texas Rangers paid over $50 million for the right to negotiate with Yu Darvish before the 2012 season.
During the previous agreement, Boston obtained Daisake Matsuzaka from the Seibu Lions before the 2007 season for $51,111,111.11 and agreed to a $52 million, six-year contract. Texas got Darvish from the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters before the 2012 season for $51,703,411 and gave him a $56 million, six-year deal.
Darvish finished second in 2013 Cy Young Award voting as the top pitcher in the American League.
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