Yankees: Masahiro Tanaka worries NYY fans with farewell social media posts

Yankees fans are nervous after Masahiro Tanaka’s emotional social media behavior.

Masahiro Tanaka’s emotional response to his final regular season start of his seven-year contract had Yankees fans thinking about Didi Gregorius on Wednesday night.

And not in the way we used to react to Didi’s ebullient postgame emoji fiestas. In the way we used to look at him in his final months in pinstripes and go, “Does he know he’s not coming back?”

Losing Gregorius always seemed to be a depressing inevitability, but the discussion of whether or not to bring back Masahiro Tanaka always seemed like more of an open conversation. Offseason buzz claimed that Tanaka was more likely to return to the team than James Paxton, which only seemed more solidified when Paxton was unable to get healthy in this shortened sprint. Tanaka, of course, has been his usual reliable self, even after a line drive injury scare at Summer Camp.

But Tanaka showed a lot of emotion on social media following the final regular season start of his seven-year contract in the Bronx, and it definitely raised alarm bells as to whether he gearing up for a more official goodbye.

On Instagram, Tanaka posted a photograph of him posing with an old-school Majestic Yankee jersey, in what appears to be one of the first photos of him as an official signee back in 2014.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFgVcbMHzBX/

His Twitter message after Wednesday’s game was also telling.

Though it’s difficult to read tonality through translation, all Tanaka technically said was that his seven-year contract is over, and he’s still looking forward to getting after it and transforming into his traditional beastly self in the postseason.

But once again, it’s another look back at the past, and another mention of everything ending.

When speaking to the media after the unfortunate sloppy loss, Tanaka made it very clear that this appearance being the final regular season start in his initial seven-year deal in the states was weighing on him.

All we can hope for, at this point, is that we’re just watching the traditionally introspective Tanaka weighing a reality of his life as he watches the stability expire. After all, this seven-year deal (with his post-2017 opt-out possibility) is all he’s ever known in the states.

Tanaka has more than delivered whenever he’s been called upon, and despite a few up-and-down regular seasons, he’s become a beloved figure in pinstripes, who locked himself into a deal when very few things were going right in the Bronx.

It would still make sense for the two parties to reunite this offseason, and hopefully this is just a moment of reflection before both sides reconcile. But, for the first time in a while, we have our doubts.

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