Yankees: Does pushing back Tanaka one day really help?

In an effort to fix Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankees are pushing him back a day in the rotation to face the Mike Trout-less Angels instead of the 31-28 Orioles.

Masahiro Tanaka may have put five W’s in the win column for the Yankees this season, but let’s be honest — he’s been the least effective pitcher in the starting rotation with his 6.55 ERA and surprisingly low 58 strikeouts in 66 innings pitched.

To make matters worse, Tanaka has allowed 10 runs in 10.2 innings pitched against the Orioles this season — whom he was slated to face Sunday in the Bronx.

So manager Joe Girardi decided that he’d push Tanaka back until Monday when the Yankees face the Angels — inside their pitcher-friendly Southern California ballpark. With Mike Trout expected to miss the next 6-8 weeks with a torn ligament in his left thumb, this certainly had to play a part in Girardi’s decision.

Per the New York Post:

“Baltimore is really familiar with him, and I don’t think an extra day [of rest] is gonna hurt him,” manager Joe Girardi said Friday after he and pitching coach Larry Rothschild made the decision. “And he can work a little bit more.”“This guy is supposed to be our ace. If you want to look at it that way, you can look at it that way. There’s a lot of different reasons. All kinds of factors. He’s struggling and Baltimore has seen him a lot. We talked about his confidence. When you don’t do something well for a while, it’s human nature [to lose confidence]. … We decided pitching in Anaheim is what’s best for him.”

Girardi’s logic makes sense, but is it really going to help?

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For those that feel the Yankees should implement a six-man rotation, a la Japanese baseball — forget about it. While it may soothe Tanaka, it throws off the other four men in the rotation — you know, the guys who are actually pitching well.

The club has already tried switching Tanaka’s stride from the first-base side of the rubber to the third base side — FYI, he’s headed back to his original side on Monday.

Inserting Austin Romine as Tanaka’s backstop lasted all of one game on May 26, when Tanaka only allowed one run, scattering five hits through 7.1 innings — yet still picked up the loss to the AL West last-place A’s.

Indeed, Tanaka struck out a season-high 13 batters that night, but I suppose Girardi felt with Gary Sanchez and Matt Holliday both hitting well — and Romine being well, Romine — that experiment wasn’t worth continuing with.

You have to wonder if something more serious is wrong with Tanaka. I mean, the club let CC Sabathia work through his early-season struggles — and that’s paid dividends.

If Tanaka’s troubles are indeed injury related and not mechanical, another poor start against the Angels could force the Yankees to send him to the 10-day DL, as suggested by Ken Davidoff of The New York Post.

As it stands, most pundits expect the Yankees to use Chad Green on Sunday, though he’ll likely only throw between 50-75 pitches because he’s been used predominately out of the bullpen this season.

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Regardless of what happens on Sunday against the Orioles, Tanaka’s start on Monday will go a long way to indicating how the Yankees move forward with their “ace.”