Yankees Masahiro Tanaka Plan B: Skip him, don’t pitch him

The Yankees received a break of sorts today when the fourth game of their series with the Royals was rained out at Yankees Stadium. This would be a very good time to go to Plan B with Tanaka.

Yankees General Manager,  Brian Cashman, when asked about the status of Masahiro Tanaka, told reporters today that:

"“We’ve done ‘CSI the Bronx’ on him a number of different times where we’ve gone through the analytics comparisons to when he’s flying high vs. the current low and there’s no indicators [of injury],”"

This is all well and good but it still misses the point that Yankees have been ignoring since the day Tanaka came to the team. Which is that Tanaka’s roots remain in Japan where he was born and bred as a pitcher who pitches every sixth day, and not every fifth day as we do Stateside.

Because if there’s nothing wrong with him physically, there’s still something very wrong with him. But no one is tougher mentally than Tanaka, who, again, draws his roots from the super tough Japanese culture and tradition. So, throw that idea out too and we don’t need the “CSI the Bronx” to know it’s true.

For Tanaka, it’s been a hard day’s night

People forget that Tanaka, even though he’s only 28, has been pitching at a high level since 2007, a decade ago when he was 18. And over that span of seven years in Japan, he averaged nearly 200 innings per season. And that was with an extra day rest.

There is little, if any, upside to letting Tanaka pitch tomorrow. If he has a “good” start, whatever that means these days, so what? He beat a Triple-A team. Yahoo!

Again, the Yankees need to understanding of the Japanese culture which accents the proud nature of the individual. Tanaka will always say, “I want the ball” right down to the moment when his kamikazed elbow or shoulder gives out.

The Yankees, while far from being the Mets with decimated pitching staffs two years in a row due to misdiagnosed or, as in the case of Noah Syndergaard, nondiagnosed injuries, have been down this road before.

James Kaprielian was telling them, “I’m good, I’m good” until he wasn’t good and he was lost for the season.

It’s up the team to harness the player. Especially, when it’s a player they’re paying $22 million or $750,000 per start, whether or not he makes those starts. If nothing else make sense, at least the economics of the situation should.

Hey Brian, how about Plan B

Plan B for the Yankees should be for Tanaka to skip a start. After all, these are the Oakland A’s in town starting tomorrow night and not the Baltimore Orioles who begin play with the Yankees in a battle for first place on Monday night. With a skip, Tanaka would be in line then to face the Orioles.

Tanaka may or may not simply need some rest. But one way to find out is to have him throw a bullpen session tomorrow on his regular start day. Have him throw 60 pitches and make sure that three-fourths of them are split-fingered fastballs, the pitch that Tanaka has seems to have lost that lovin’ feelin’ for.

Because if he can’t throw it effectively in the bullpen, he surely can’t throw it in a game. And if that’s the case, the Yankees just saved themselves another ten hits and seven runs over three innings.

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On the other hand, if it looks like the pitch for him “is back”, wonderful. Pencil him in for the first game of the series against the Orioles on Monday at Camden Yards.

Sometimes, at least to me, it almost seems like general managers don’t want to be put in a position where they’re, essentially, calling a player a liar if they don’t “trust” what a player says about his ability to pitch at any given moment.

But again, the player is owned by the team and paid by the team for the duration of his contract. And it should never be the other way around as we saw in the case of Syndergaard and the Mets, and to a lesser extent with Kaprielian and the Yankees.

Yankees: Really, what’s the rush?

Finally, we’re only at the quarter-pole of the 2017 season. The Yankees have a 2 1/2 game lead on the Orioles, who have their own set of problems.

From the outside looking in, I don’t get this one. And that’s because there is little, if any, upside to letting Tanaka pitch tomorrow. If he has a “good” start, whatever that means these days, so what? He beat a Triple-A team. Yahoo!

Yankees: Should they stay with the plan or go for number 28?

Soon, the Yankees will be facing their most crucial question of this young season. Do they stand pat or go for their 28th World Championship via trades?

But if he falters again, a whole new cycle starts up again about what to do about Mr. Tanaka. Cashman gets paid to make these decisions and he’s earned at least a little mistake cushion over the last year.

But I would at least like to see him think this through one more time before 7:05 P.M. tomorrow night.