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Yankees News: Masahiro Tanaka Healthy and Ready to Go

By Michael Cambria

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Take a deep breath.

New York Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka said he believes his elbow is completely healthy and that he’ll be fine for the duration of the 2015 season.

Exhale.

“I feel it’s healed,” Tanaka said to a group of reporters at George M. Steinbrenner Field Friday, the day the club’s pitchers and catchers made their long-anticipated return to spring training. “I’m confident I can get through the season.”

Exhale again.

Tanaka, 26, followed a strict rehab program after suffering a partial tear of his right UCL in his pitching elbow last July. He returned to make a pair of September starts before traveling home to Japan at the end of the Yankees season.

Tanaka said that an MRI taken in October showed improvement — “The doctor just told us that there’s no problem at all” — and he went through an off-season conditioning program that focused on strengthening his shoulder and elbow.

Tanaka displayed his health in a 21-pitch bullpen season yesterday at the Yankees minor league complex, a session in which Tanaka mixed fastballs with breaking pitches, and said that he uncorked two splitters. He is scheduled to throw off the mound again on Sunday and is following a similar schedule to last year’s Spring Training routine. According to reporters, he appeared healthy throughout the session, throwing at perhaps three-quarters speed.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said he believes that Tanaka could be the very same ace the team saw last season, and this time, for all of 2015.

“It hasn’t been any different,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “He’s where he would be pretty much on a normal spring. We’ve had no stipulations on what he can do and what he can’t do. What he’s been through, it’s not really uncommon, there’s been a lot of pitchers who have gone through what he’s had and pitched for a substantial period of time before anything has to be done.”

The one example I like to point out is Chris Carpenter, who suffered the same injury, elected not to have the surgery like Tanaka, and the rest of his career was history. Let’s hope we see a repeat in history out of the Yankees ace.

After going 13-5 with a 2.77 ERA in his first big league campaign last season, Tanaka believes that his growing level of comfort will allow him to have an even better sophomore season.

“I think I kind of know what to expect, the rhythm and flow of things now, just by having the experience of a full season last year,” Tanaka said. “Baseball-wise and just everyday-life-wise, I think I’m a little bit more used to it than last year.

Still, however, the staff will take a cautious approach to his injury.

Exhale.

Next: The Bullpen IS The Weapon

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