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Yankees News: Masahiro Tanaka Could be Back Sooner Rather then Later

By Matt Curran

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On Wednesday, Masahiro Tanaka will be in Pawtucket on his next rehab start. If everything goes right, and there is no problem Tanaka could join the Yankees in Seattle, next week.

Last Thursday Masahiro Tanaka threw 41 pitches in three innings for the Yankees Triple-A affiliate, Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Joe Girardi talked about how positive the rehab has gone for the right-hander.

"‘He said he feels good today, his arm feels great,’ Girardi said. ‘So he’ll go again on Wednesday and we’ll make an evaluation from there. That’s the next step. We just had a chance to talk to him and it’s all good.’"

Next start in Pawtucket Tanaka will have his pitch count up to 65. It is a higher increase than a usual rehab start, but Masahiro Tanaka is more stretch out then the other starters, for an example Ivan Nova. Usually the pitcher needs to throw about 90 pitches, before they are ready to come back to the majors, but Tanaka may be the exception.

"‘I think you have to evaluate each start he makes and how crisp the stuff is, and then decide if he’s not a 100-pitch pitcher, can your club handle that, depending on what kind of stretch you’re in and how much your bullpen has been used, that sort of thing,’ Girardi said. ‘Have we done that before? Yes. But I think we’ll continue to evaluate where we think he’s at and we’ll make a decision.’"

If the Yankees continue to struggle, they might want to push him back quicker then the average starter. If Masahiro Tanaka is healthy, and is ready to go, I have no problem bringing him back sooner rather than later. It is interesting that they have been so careful with Tanaka, but they are ready to rush him back. I think Tanaka should have one more rehab start after his second one, and let him build up his arm strength a little more.

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