Bomber Bites With Jumping Joe-What if Masahiro Tanaka Goes Down?

Mandatory Credit: Chad R. MacDonald.

Without a doubt, the best pitcher on the Yankees this season has been the Japanese import, Masahiro Tanaka. In fact he has been one of the best pitchers in the entire American League. He is 6-0 with a 2.17 ERA and 66 strikeouts. He has absolutely dominated hitters from his first start of the season. If he can keep up his torrid pace, he might make his outlandish $155 million contract look reasonable by the end of the season.

But what if he can’t? What if the massive workload Tanaka threw in Japan finally catches up to him and he needs an extended stay on the disabled list? A list that already includes three-fifths of the Opening Day rotation in Ivan Nova, CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda. What if hitters make an adjustment to Tanaka and he starts to falter? What would happen to the Yankees?

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In 1948, the Boston Post published a poem entitled “Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain.”  The Boston Braves at the time had two great pitchers in Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain and little else in the rotation. The poem spoke of the desire for rainouts so that only Spahn and Sain needed to pitch. Since Tanaka’s current rotation mates are three inconsistent starters (Hiroki Kuroda, Vidal Nuno and David Phelps) and one virtual unknown (Chase Whitley), a poem for the 2014 Yankees might be “Tanaka and Pray for a Monsoon.” Losing Tanaka would devastate the rotation mostly beyond repair and irreparably damage the Yankees’ playoff hopes.

The period of Tanaka being a luxury or as GM Brian Cashman put it a “third starter” is over. Tanaka is the unquestioned ace of the staff and not only can the Yankees not afford a serious injury to the Japanese hurler, but they simply cannot afford any drop in effectiveness either. Due to the rash of injuries to the rotation, the Yankees have been forced to call upon the B-Team rotation, which has put a huge strain on the bullpen. As the only real legitimate starter still standing, the Yankees need Tanaka to win games and go deep in games every single time out until reinforcements can arrive. If he doesn’t, the Yankees could be in for a very long summer followed by a lack of fall ball.