Yankees fan favorite lands with legendary new team in Japanese free agency

If you're a casual fan of Japanese baseball, but an American diehard, odds are the only professional overseas team you've heard of is the Yomiuri Giants. The biggest brand in the west, Yomiuri has produced world career home run record holder Saduharu Oh, responsible for a ridiculous 868 blasts in the uniform, dwarfing Barry Bonds. The club was also the Japanese home of Hideki "Godzilla" Matsui, who switched shores and eventually became a Yankees icon.

Now, another Yankees import and fan favorite has chosen to take the opposite track.

Masahiro Tanaka, who began his NPB career with the Rakuten Golden Eagles, joined the Yankees on a seven-year contract worth $155 million during the 2013-14 offseason. Tanaka represents New York's most recent splash in the Japanese market, and despite an elbow injury that gummed up his first summer in the Bronx, he fulfilled all seven years of the pact largely healthy. He grew into a playoff-tested ace of the early clubs of the Aaron Judge era, walking away from the Yankees after the empty stadium 2020 postseason, sadly without a proper sendoff.

At that point, he returned to Japan and the very same Eagles he came up with, pitching for Rakuten from 2021-2024. And now, he'll attempt to put a capper on his career by giving himself a chance to doff that very same legendary Yomiuri Giants cap once sported by Oh, Matsui, and countless other luminaries.

The terms of Tanaka's deal with the Giants are still unknown, but this will be the pitcher's first career departure to an unfamiliar NPB team.

Yankees fan favorite Masahiro Tanaka signs with Yomiuri Giants in NPB free agency

Tanaka showed up in the Bronx this fall, huddled up in the stands with his wife for Game 4 of the World Series like a regular old fan (far enough away from the action that he couldn't possibly grab Mookie Betts' glove).

Hopefully, he can return again next October and give the Yankees a leftover dose of his postseason magic; after all, it's no coincidence that was the only game they won in the Fall Classic.

It's only fitting that, after wearing the pinstripes so proudly, Tanaka gets a chance to wear Japan's iconic equivalent. We'll be following his progress this summer.