Rakuten Golden Eagles legend Masahiro Tanaka has joined the prestigious Yomiuri Giants.

Yomiuri said it recruited Tanaka on the 25th. "I'm honored to wear the uniform of the Giants, who have been a fan since childhood," Tanaka, who joined Yomiuri, said. "I'm focused on the remaining three wins (including the 200 wins in the U.S. and Japan), but I want to contribute to the team for as many wins as possible."

Tanaka wore the Rakuten uniform for 100 million yen (approximately 900 million won) as a down payment in 2007, and played for the Rakuten until the 2013 season. Notably, he left for a foreign country in the 2013 season, wearing the uniform of the New York Yankees in the Major League with a whopping 24 wins, no loss, and an earned run average of 1.27. Tanaka garnered 99 wins during the seven seasons in the Japanese professional baseball league.메이저놀이터

After leaving for the U.S., Tanaka played for the Yankees for seven seasons, recording 78 wins, 46 losses and an earned run average of 3.74. Except for the 2020 season, which is the last season, he has consistently garnered more than 10 wins every year. Tanaka has announced his return to the NPB after organizing his career in the U.S. ahead of the 20201 season.

His former team Rakuten welcomed the return of legend by awarding Tanaka 900 million yen (8.4 billion won) in annual salary, which was his highest pay at the time. However, Tanaka failed to display good pitching during his heyday, recording 20 wins and 33 losses in four seasons. In the 2024 season, he ended the season due to injury, with one loss and an ERA of 7.20.

Rakuten offered to pay Tanaka a cut in salary after he completely lost the entire season. After being offered 140 million yen (1.5 million U.S. dollars), Tanaka left his old team to enter the market and wore Yomiuri's uniform. Yomiuri plans to fill the gap of Tomoyuki Sugano, a 15-win pitcher who moved to the ML team after the end of the season.