What ARE the Yankees doing with Tanaka?

By Jennifer Rainwater | Sep 3, 2014

I don’t know about you but I am sick of this news. Masahiro Tanaka cleared to pitch. Tanaka feels soreness. Tanaka cleared to pitch. Repeat. Yes it’s the same story over and over but the real underlying question is why?

Why is there such a push for him to pitch again this season? I’m not a big believer that rehabbing even a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament works at least it didn’t for Matt Harvey for example. He ended up needing surgery in the end and missing the entire 2014 season.

The last time I talked about Tanaka I expressed my conviction that he should have had surgery when he was diagnosed over two months ago. Last week he felt “general soreness” in his throwing arm and now suddenly he has been cleared to pitch again. The Yankees say that he played catch without any problems and that they hope for him to pitch again for them this season.

Again I want to grab these specialists, Joe Girardi, anyone involved in this by the shoulders and demand to know why?

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The Yankees are nine and a half games out of first place so that option for a playoff berth is gone at this point. They are a full five games out of the second A.L. wild card spot. If any team comes from behind to take over the second spot from the Detroit Tigers it will likely be the Seattle Mariners who are just a game and a half back, not the Yankees.

Not with all the injuries the Yankees have had. Not with what, a start or two from Tanaka? Honestly, what good is having him pitch this year going to do. I’m no expert so his arm may very well heal on its own without surgery and that would be great. I’d be happy for him.

However by allowing him to push himself to the point where it’s a different story every other week since he started pitching again they are going to let him hurt himself. He’s been pushing for a return since he was first shutdown on July 9.

Now it has been two months and the Yankees are all but out of the playoff picture. If the team were responsible at all they would shut this nonsense down, actually they would have done it yesterday or last week.

Even if they don’t care about the 25-year-old ace’s arm or chances of pitching healthy next season, shouldn’t they at least care about their investment? They did sign him to a seven year $155 million contract didn’t they?

I understand that the Japanese phenom was 12-4 with a 2.51 ERA prior to being injured and would likely have as many wins as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw.

Yet, is trying to make a playoff push when it’s pretty obvious that the team will not get past a wild card game worth jeopardizing Tanaka?

Are they doing this for Derek Jeter? Sure, it sounds ludicrous but I’m not even kidding. I’ve exhausted all other explanations within the last week so I may as well throw a new one out there.

Maybe someone should ask the Captain his opinion. I doubt the Captain, who we know will sacrifice himself for the team, would not want his team to suffer next year just so he could play in one more playoff game.

Yep, someone should definitely ask Jeter and soon. Tanaka is scheduled to throw another bullpen session this week and could come off of the disabled list as soon as next week.