Yankees: We interview Masahiro Tanaka and find his focus on consistency

Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka shared his thoughts with the press today at the Yankees Spring Training complex. As always, he is focused mainly on his performance while stressing the need for consistency from fellow teammate Luis Severino and rotation hopeful Jordan Montgomery.

The New York Yankees don’t want to win this year…they want to win every year. And apparently so does Masahiro Tanaka. That is possibly an impossible goal, but still, it is always best to let our reach exceed our grasp.

It is perhaps better to say they would like to be competitive every year and put themselves in position to win. That takes consistency, the real watchword in a sport played out over 162 games.

Masahiro Tanaka knows that. He, in fact, made that clear twice during his interview today.

For instance, yesterday both pitching coach Larry Rothschild and RHP Luis Severino were asked if the team needed another starter. While both made it clear that there is plenty of talent already on the starting staff, they were also clear that another starter could only help.

Not so Masahiro. But not because he disagrees with either gentleman. No, that is just not how Tanaka-san thinks.

When asked the same question, he demurred, instead of saying he is focused on his performance. And that he trusts the Yankees to put the best talent they can find in this club.

It’s easy to think that way when Brian Cashman added NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton over the off-season. But it was his way of saying that it is his job to be the best pitcher he can be, as that is his role. And his sole focus.

Only the Strong Survive

Masahiro understands that the most potent team is not one in which people have to help each other. Of course, teammates should want to be there for one another.

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But the best teams are ones in which every player can hold his own at all times. That extends to even thinking about the job the front office is doing.

For instance, if Tanaka is not giving 100% of his energy and concentration to pitching, his performance will be less than optimal. That will put added stress and work on the other starters and the bullpen.

That is the opposite of being a good teammate.

And of keeping all eyes on winning a championship in 2018. Besides, Brian Cashman isn’t going to help him find his slider in the middle of a tough seventh inning against the Red Sox, so best not to help Cash find a new pitcher. Each man has a job to do, and Tanaka made it clear he is going to make sure he does everything he can to be at least as good if not better than he was in 2017.

Return of the King

The Yankees would welcome that, especially the “better than” part, at least in the regular season. Masahiro ended the year with the worst numbers of his four-year stint. His final ERA was 4.74, a full point above his previous high (3.51 in 2015).

All of his numbers are like that. But the biggest disappointment for the great pitcher has to be his home runs. He gave up 35, a forty-percent increase over his previous high of 25 again in 2015.

Tanaka seemed well aware of that. When asked about the steps he has taken to correct that, the cagey Tanaka-san merely alluded to the answers he has found.

We then brought the interview back to his focus on performance. I asked him what he thought of the development of young Yankees pitchers Severino and Jordan Montgomery. His answer was pure Tanaka.

“The hard part of being in this league is to be consitent in performance every year… Now, for them is to try to replicate better on what they did the previous year.”

Of course, he was happy to see his teammates and team do well. But that was last year. For the 2018 Yankees to maximize their potential, both pitchers will have to be as good as they were last year.

And that is not limited to just those two players. Although he neither said nor alluded to a broader point about the entire club, it was clear that Masahiro would want every player to make his primary focus the games ahead, not the ones already in the record books.

But Tanaka wasn’t criticizing any of his teammates. It was a philosophical statement directed more at himself than anyone else.

The Man in the Mirror

For proof of concept, the rest of the Yankees can look right at Masahiro. It was as much this way of thinking as any mechanical adjustments that allowed Tanaka to dominate in the playoffs.

Against Cleveland in the ALDS, Tanaka showed his focus on the now, not the past, by going seven shutout innings. Finding the consistency, he lacked all year; he followed that up with 13 innings spread over two games in the ALCS against eventual champion Houston by posting a 1.38 ERA.

My guess is that is the type of consistency he would like to bring with him in 2018. And 2019. And 2020. You get the point.

Hopefully, so do all the young Yankees.

Next: Now Hear From the Yankees Soft Spoken Ace Luis Severino

Tanaka said at one point he wanted more than anything to go back into battle with these Yankees teammates. But I’m sure he meant the ones who are focused on their performances, not Brian Cashman’s.

Again, that is not a criticism, just pure Tanaka.