They met with Masahiro Tanaka for almost three hours at a private residence in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Jan. 8, and the length of the session left the Yankees feeling encouraged. After all, their eight-member delegation had been allotted only one hour to meet with Tanaka, the prized Japanese right-handed pitcher, and his agent, Casey Close, but instead the give-and-take kept going and the Yankees kept making their pitch.

They told Tanaka, who had a startling 24-0 record in 2013, that both the Yankees and New York City stood out from the competition and that someone with his talent could flourish in that environment. They showed a video containing scenes of Yankee glory, including shots of Hideki Matsui, the Japanese slugger who thrived with the team. They had even recruited Matsui to insert a message in the video, in which he told Tanaka of the virtues of playing in pinstripes.

At one point, the video equipment broke down, a reminder, maybe, of all the injuries that bedeviled the Yankees in their frustrating 2013 season. But the equipment was fixed, the video presentation was concluded and the Yankees’ message was complete: They could offer Tanaka a stage no other team could match, and they were prepared to back up their words with an enormous amount of money.

When they were done, the Yankees waited, not sure if another team might find a way to outmaneuver them. And then, late Tuesday, nearly two weeks after that initial meeting, the Yankees got the word from Close they had been hoping for: Tanaka had agreed to accept their offer of a seven-year, $155 million contract, the fifth-largest deal landed by a pitcher and the most money given to a player coming from Japan.