The Chicago Cubs have not had anywhere near the success of the New York Yankees or Los Angeles Angels in recent memory, nor have they made any free agent splash as big as the one the Seattle Mariners made this offseason by inking Robinson Cano; still, they believe they have a real shot at being the team that snags Masahiro Tanaka.
Tanaka, a 25-year-old Japanese sensation, who was 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA and 183 strikeouts for the Rakuten Golden Eagles last season, is in the United States and has triggered a bidding war among several teams. He is almost unanimously considered the top free agent pitcher on the market.
The Cubs can't pitch recent history to Tanaka, so they are trying to convince him that the future is in Chi-town.
"[Our pitch] to him is that we're a club on the [upswing]," new manager Rick Renteria said. "We're a club that has a lot of talent [in the minor leagues] besides the guys that we have here [at the major league level]. The organization has quality players coming up that's going to significantly impact the organization."
Unlike Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto, Renteria is openly discussing their interest in Tanaka. "Obviously we've had conversations with Tanaka," Renteria said. "I'm not sure exactly where we are in that process. We were there, we had conversations, very good conversations, obviously through translators."
The Cubs want him so badly that Renteria is going to learn Japanese so he can communicate better with the prized pitcher. "I actually ordered Rosetta Stone [a computer-assisted language learning program], the Japanese version. I'm going to be prepared [if Tanaka does come here]. I'm going to try to learn a little Japanese, and if [he signs], good for us."
Should Tanaka head to Chicago, he will join budding star Jeff Samardzija and breakout starter Travis Wood in the rotation.
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