NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The Bronx is rejoicing!

Japanese ace Masahiro Tanaka has signed a seven-year deal with the New York Yankees, the team announced Wednesday.

Tanaka’s contract is worth $155 million and contains a full no-trade clause, according to WFAN and CBSSports.com baseball insider Jon Heyman. He will be able to opt out after the 2017 season.

His decision reportedly came down to five finalists: the Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks. The heavily courted starting pitcher was facing a Jan. 24 deadline to sign with an MLB team or return to pitch in Japan.

Brian Cashman

“We’re going to do what we’ve got to do to win,” Yankees co-owner Hank Steinbrenner told The Associated Press.

Hank’s brother, Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner, has said getting under the $189 million luxury tax threshold was a goal — not a mandate — for 2014. They are now at $203 million, according to the AP.

“We needed to improve our pitching,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told WFAN host Mike Francesa on Wednesday. “We needed to do a lot of different things, but definitely needed to pull 400 innings off of the marketplace. Re-signing (Hiroki) Kuroda and now securing Tanaka will help reinforce much-needed rotation help.

“(Getting under the threshold) was certainly a stated goal, but Hal, I think, has had to clarify that a number of times … That certainly was a stated goal, and something we were working towards, but unfortunately a lot of different things that would have assisted us in that process didn’t work out.”