Yankees: Projecting First 2 Weeks of Starting Rotation Without Masahiro Tanaka

Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka might not be ready for the start of the regular season.

The Yankees weren’t able to celebrate July 4 like the rest of the country as starting pitcher Masahiro Tanaka was sent to the hospital after being drilled in the head by a screaming line drive off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton during live batting practice.

The subsequent update served as a profound sigh of relief as Tanaka was diagnosed with a mild concussion and spent hardly any time under the care of medical professionals. He has since progressed from long-tossing at increasing distances earlier in the week to reportedly throwing a 30-pitch bullpen at high intensity on Thursday.

Better still? He hasn’t been showing any concussion-like symptoms since being discharged.

As swimmingly as the two-time All-Star’s recovery is progressing, however, it’s expected that the Yankees will slow-play his return to the diamond, and rightfully so.

In the event that Tanaka misses the first two weeks of the regular season — even if it’s just for precautionary reasons — manager Aaron Boone will be tasked with filling out the starting rotation behind top dogs Gerrit Cole and James Paxton. You have to figure that left-handers JA Happ and Jordan Montgomery will earn a place, so what about that fifth spot?

There really is no wrong answer.

Could Boone reach into his old bag of tricks and deploy reliever Chad Green as a starter for the first two weeks? Absolutely, but he could also turn to prospect Clarke Schmidt, who has been all of the rage throughout Spring Training 2.0. It’s anyone’s guess as to who will get the nod, but we believe it will look something like this:

• Gerrit Cole
• James Paxton
• JA Happ
• Jordan Montgomery
• Clarke Schmidt/Chad Green

But as Yes Network’s Jack Curry notes here, it’s possible Boone skips a fifth starter the first time around to get Cole in there again on the 27th against the Phillies since he’ll be on five days of rest (the Yankees will have a day off after their Opening Day matchup vs the Nationals).

But for the fifth spot, we’re giving the edge to Schmidt, the club’s No. 2 overall prospect, according to MLB.com. Not only do fans want to se the 24-year-old stud in the rotation, but he’s earned the chance to replace Tanaka, even if it’s only for two starts.

You’ll also notice that we didn’t include Jonathan Loaisiga, who actually impressed and was on his way to winning the fifth rotation spot during the initial Spring Training. However, he was late to join his teammates at summer camp due to complications in returning from his native Nicaragua amid the coronavirus pandemic. The promising right-hander is simply well behind the rest of the club in terms of preparing for the start of the campaign and will probably start the year in the bullpen.

We could be dead wrong in our projection, but the main takeaway here is that the Yankees have no shortage of potential replacements for Tanaka, and that should ease the minds of fans as he works his way back to full strength.