Tanaka solid in return to Yankees
Masahiro Tanaka made his return to the New York Yankees on Sunday. He allowed one earned run on five hits in 5.1 innings. Surprisingly, manager Joe Girardi allowed Tanaka to throw 70 pitches, 48 of which were for strikes.
So, it is so far so good for the rookie right-hander who is coming off attempting to rehab a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow. Tanaka was sidelined with the injury in early July and chose not to have Tommy John surgery but to follow a rehabilitation throwing program instead.
So I will admit, I was wrong. A lot. I wrote about Tanaka needing surgery more than once and so far at least based on his pitching performance today he does not. Yet, if he ends up getting it within the next year I think it’s fair to let me say “I told you so.”
It seems that most pitchers end up having their first surgery, if not their second surgery by the time they are 30 years old. So Tanaka, 25, still has a few years to go.
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Honestly, I would love to see him make it and be wrong. He could be a key in stopping or at least slowing the Tommy John surgery epidemic that seems to have consumed baseball.
With the number of surgeries, many of which are repeat surgeries, rising abruptly in 2012 and steadily ever since. It will be good for the game to see that maybe surgery isn’t the only option or, at least not, the immediate option for a torn or partially torn ulnar collateral ligament.
Tanaka took his rehab very seriously, taking it easy when he needed to, and has so far had one successful start back for the Yankees. Hopefully for New York, their ace will be successful in his second start and final start of 2014 and comeback strong in 2015.
Whether or not the Yankees’ experiment of going against the grain by not taking the surgery path will work we have to wait to find out for sure.
If what we saw from Tanaka today was any indication, the future looks bright for Tanaka. Up until he was sidelined, Tanaka was one of the front runners for the 2014 American League Rookie of the Year Award.
Tanaka is 12-4 in 18 starts going into Sunday’s game, with a 2.51 ERA with three complete games already under his belt, one of them a shutout. He got win number 14 over the Blue Jays Sunday with the Yankees backing him up with five runs to Toronto’s two.