Yankees: What to make of Masahiro Tanaka not receiving the qualifying offer

The Yankees didn’t give Masahiro Tanaka the qualifying offer. A lot can still happen.

The clock struck 5 p.m. ET on Sunday, which was the deadline for MLB teams to extend the qualifying offer to impending free agents of their choice.

The New York Yankees announced their decision at the buzzer, revealing that only DJ LeMahieu had received the one-year, $18.9 million deal. The slugger will have 10 days to accept or decline, which buys the team some time and also protects them with draft pick compensation in case he decides to sign elsewhere in free agency.

But what about Masahiro Tanaka?! No offer for the right-hander? Starting pitching, once again, is the team’s biggest need!

What does this mean? Well, it could be good or bad! We honestly have no idea. Let’s look at the scenarios.

1. The Yankees have no interest in bringing back Tanaka, so they don’t want to risk him accepting the $18.9 million deal.
2. The Yankees have interest in bringing back Tanaka, but not at that price, so they’re willing to risk him signing elsewhere rather than him accepting the QO.
3. The Yankees and Tanaka have already spoken and agreed that he wouldn’t be offered the QO because they want to work out a more favorable multi-year deal.
4. The Yankees and Tanaka have already spoken, and he told the team he wanted to test free agency without the QO weighing down his value, so the team respected his request not to extend the offer.
5. The Yankees trust that Tanaka won’t be quick to jump the gun and sign elsewhere, so they see little reason to give him the QO because it could disadvantage both of them.

You see what we’re saying? The possibilities are split here.

Given the Yankees and Tanaka have a very good relationship after spending the last seven years together, we would hope Option 3 is the one that’s reigning supreme behind closed doors. The fact of the matter is that the Yankees need starting pitching and would prefer familiarity in the rotation, which eliminates re-signing James Paxton or JA Happ.

Anyway, there’s still a very good chance Tanaka returns to the Yankees despite the fact he didn’t get the QO. But we’d be remiss if we didn’t take a look at each possible scenario. All in all, hope is not dead and we’d like to think a multi-year deal at a reasonable rate is in the works.

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