Yankees roll the dice with Tanaka again tonight in Detroit

The Yankees have no choice but to roll the dice again tonight, sending their $21 million “Ace” to the mound tonight in Detroit. There’s no telling whether or not he’ll show up, though.

Yankee’s right hander and last year’s Cy Young contender, Masahiro Tanaka returns from the 10-day DL tonight to face the very beatable Detroit Tigers. His 8-10, 4.92 ERA.1.279 WHIP this season speaks for itself.

And if the Yankees were using the 10-day DL rule as a Taxi Squad and place to park him for a while, good for them, but the dance is over and ready or not, Joe Girardi has no choice but to pitch him tonight.

The biggest problem for the Yankees, though, is that Tanaka has pitched poorly inconsistently, becoming a mini-version of Michael Pineda. Which leaves the team with no choice but to hold tight on the dugout rail, hoping for the best, but hardly sure of anything.

At this point, it’s highly doubtful the Yankees would even consider using Tanaka in the playoffs. Assuming Jordan Montgomery and Jaime Garcia take the three and four spots behind Sonny Gray and Luis Severino, the would be no need to gamble on Tanaka.

For the moment, though, unless the Yankees can come up with another reason to place Tanaka on the DL again following this game, he’s in the rotation, if only to make him earn some of the money the team is paying him.

At times, Tanaka has pitched brilliantly. On June 23, he went eight innings striking out nine receiving a no-decision in a game the Yankees won 2-1. And on July 19 against Boston, Tanaka went 7.2 innings, striking out nine again, but this time his team lost 9-7 after he was removed from the game.

To his credit, Tanaka’s ERA has come down from a high of 6.56 on May 20 to where it is now at 4.92, though, still well above the league average of 4.36, according to Baseball Reference.

As you can probably tell, I’m hoping against hope that Tanaka leaves $50 million, or whatever it is, on the table and decides to take his services elsewhere. And I’m also thinking the Yankees feel the same way.

It’s more than Tanaka, though

The series against the Tigers does not, however, revolve around Tanaka. The sputtering offense is going to have a new look with the sooner than later return of Greg Bird, Starlin Castro, and eventually, even Matt Holliday.

Holliday, in particular, will have something to prove as he will be without a job when the season ends. And we all know about the compelling and mystifying saga of Bird over the last two seasons, making him also highly motivated when he returns.

The challenges induced on Joe Girardi when these players return will be equal to the flexibility it provides in constructing a regular lineup, especially concerning the placement of Aaron Judge in the order.

Time to show some dominance

There is no question the Yankees need to show dominance in their next six games between Detroit and Seattle before the going gets tough again with the arrival of the Cleveland Indians at the Stadium next Monday. And shortly after that series, the Red Sox come into town for four games.

It’s imperative Tanaka gets the ball rolling tonight by delivering a quality start of six or more innings and surrendering three or fewer runs.

Next: Yanks farm report: Summer is ending but not the harvest

I guess, like Girardi, though, at least for now, we’ll just go with the flow.

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