TAMPA, Fla. — No guarantees.
It’s all part of the cautious approach the Yankees are taking this spring with Masahiro Tanaka.
So even as Larry Rothschild said Monday morning “nothing is bothering” the righthander and that “he’s where we want him to be,” the pitching coach refrained from giving an absolute assurance Tanaka will be ready by the start of the regular season.
“I really don’t know right now,” Rothschild said after watching Tanaka throw his third bullpen of the spring, a 31-pitch session Monday morning in which he threw all of his pitches. “I’ve taken the schedule out a little ways, but with guys like him I’d rather see him each progression and not put a timetable on it. So we’ll progress him. It’s obviously a real possibility (the start of the season) but until I get down the path a little bit, I’m not going to know that.”
The 27-year-old Tanaka, who sustained a slight tear in his ulnar collateral ligament in 2014 that did not require surgery, had two DL stints last season. Once was for a right forearm strain and right wrist tendonitis, which cost him about six weeks early in the season, and he was later sidelined for a short time in September with a right hamstring strain.
After the season, Tanaka, who went 12-7 with a 3.51 ERA, had a bone spur removed from his right elbow on Oct. 20.
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It is for that reason, the pitcher is being brought along at a deliberate pace this spring.
“No hitches or anything,” Rothschild said of Tanaka’s spring to this point. “We’ll just keep progressing and hopefully it stays that way.”
- Newsday