‘Hot Stove’ simmering
The only mounds seeing much action these days are made of snow, but nonetheless one Japanese star pitcher has been burning up Major League Baseball’s “Hot Stove” season. Masahiro Tanaka, 25, a highly coveted right-hander from the Japan Pacific League coming off a dominant 24-0 season, is the talk of the offseason. Perhaps as many as 10 teams, including the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox, and the New York Yankees, are expected to vie for his talents before he agrees to a contract with one of them by the Jan. 24 deadline. It’s widely believed that Tanaka could fetch a multiyear contract worth $100 million or more — including the $20 million posting fee owed to Tanaka’s prior employer, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles — a huge price tag for someone who has yet to play a single game in the majors. “Tanaka is on his way to...