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The Rays Tank: Tanaka and Protective Headgear

Reports are claiming that Masahiro Tanaka will not be posted this year, and Brandon McCarthy says that protective headgear could be available for pitchers next season.

By Stephanie Katz
Koji Watanabe

In the latest will he or won’t he be posted saga, reports from Japan yesterday were claiming that Masahiro Tanaka will not be posted this winter. Instead, the Rakuten Golden Eagles will offer to double or triple his salary in 2014, according to John Schlegel’s article on MLB.com. Rakuten has until February 1st to decide on whether or not they will post Tanaka.

With that news, perhaps that could mean more suitors for David Price? Jon Heyman breaks down the lack of a “feeding frenzy” for the Rays’ ace.

Brandon McCarthy believes that pitchers could be wearing protective headgear as early as next year. McCarthy appeared on Jimmy Traina’s podcast yesterday to discuss the progress for the development of this headgear. McCarthy told Traina, “it’s going to look silly… It should be strong enough and capable enough that literally if I got hit by the same exact ball, I would have been able to keep pitching in that game.” He also described the headgear as a cap, not a helmet, and mentioned that when he sent pictures of it to other pitchers, some told him it’s a no-go while others said they would have to try it on. You can listen to the whole interview here!

After the article was posted, McCarthy took to Twitter and issued the following statement after retweeting people who didn’t necessarily like the idea of protective headgear for pitchers.

Links:

- If you plan on attending the 2014 All-Star Game, registration for the opportunity to purchase tickets begins today.

- David Schoenfield discusses the growth of platoons amongst MLB teams.

- Mike Podhorzer of RotoGraphs takes a look at Roberto Hernandez’s signing with the Phillies.

- News broke yesterday that Grant Balfour’s deal with the Orioles could be in jeopardy after Baltimore apparently saw something that they didn’t like with Balfour’s shoulder. Official word should be released today on the status of his contract.

- What’s your favorite baseball related song? “Centerfield” by John Fogerty takes the cake for Jim Caple of ESPN.com in his list of baseball’s best songs.

- These cards are pretty sweet:

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