In Jon Heyman's post about Masahiro Tanaka meeting with several MLB teams, he had this:
The Jays are among several others teams to have had multiple discussions with team Tanaka, but there was no word they had a meeting planned as of yet.
That's a pretty clunky sentence. "To have had". Does that mean they have had multiple discussions or are planning to have them. I don't know what if 'multiple discussions' show a greater interest in him than have a 'meeting'. I don't know if the Jays need to have a meeting in the next couple days to offer a contract or if one could have been offered in the discussions they had.
After the Darvish mess, I'm expecting someone to tell us that the Jays have a press conference planned for this afternoon. I didn't believe it last time and I won't believe it this time until I have a press release from the Jays saying 'we signed him, you said we wouldn't but we did'.
I'm sure they Jays will talk to him, they talk to everyone, and I'm sure they have a dollar amount in mind for a 'this is as high as we are willing to go', if there is any mutual interest.
I'm thinking Tanaka will be getting something like $20 million a year for, at least, 5 years, but maybe 6 or 7, considering the number of teams involved in the bidding. That's a lot of money for someone that has been pitching in a league that is tough to figure how to compare to the MLB.
He's thrown a lot of innings, at a young age, I'm sure the team that signs him will put him through the physical to end all physicals. The trouble is that, to my understanding, all pitchers shoulders are damaged. Our bodies weren't designed to do what pitchers do. How much damage is too much will be the question.