Today marks the end of a memorable era in Yankees history, as steady starter Masahiro Tanaka has officially left Major League Baseball. The 32-year-old is returning to his original NPB team, the Rakuten Eagles; the club announced the deal early this morning. The Kyodo News reports that it’s a two-year contract, though specific terms are not known at this time.
All offseason long, it has felt like this was the likely outcome of Tanaka’s return to free agency. The Yankees just never seemed fully interested in bringing him back, and unless he got a great offer from another MLB team, the odds were good that he would sign with Rakuten.