Yanks Have Reportedly Made An Offer To Hirok

We found out last week that the Yankees were feeling "more upbeat" about Hiroki Kuroda returning to pitch for them next season than they were earlier in the offseason.  Those upbeat feelings have now reportedly translated to a new contract offer.  According to Andrew Marchand, the exact details of the offer aren't known but an unnamed source has it as another 1-year deal between $15-16 million.  That would represent a slight upgrade from the 1-year deal that Kuroda pitched on this past season.

Mark Feinsand just tweeted that the offer was made "a long time ago," so maybe there's some differing information going on here.  My expectation was always that the Yankees would strongly entertain the idea of bringing Kuroda back next season if they felt he was open to returning.  I also expected them to wait a little longer than they did last year to explore other, younger options first.  Regardless of when the offer was extended, this is a sign that the Yankees aren't content to wait around for the Masahiro Tanaka posting situation to get resolved.  If they do end up with both Kuroda and Tanaka next year, that wouldn't be a bad first 4 to have in the rotation.