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Masahiro Tanaka named Yankees' opening day starter
The New York Yankees entered spring training with more questions than answers regarding the outlook of their roster. Fortunately, the answers they're receiving so far have been mostly encouraging, and that continued on Friday with Joe Griardi's announcement that right-hander Masahiro Tanaka will get the opening-day pitching assignment.
According to Girardi, Tanaka, who's pitching through a small tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, will be slightly limited when he takes the ball against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. But he's in a better position than long-time ace CC Sabathia, who's coming back from July surgery on his right knee.
“When we came into spring training, our main focus was to make sure they were both healthy,” Girardi said of Sabathia and Tanaka, who are both coming back from major injuries. “We took it slow because of things they dealt with the year before.
“If CC wouldn’t have had the (knee) problem and pitched all 30 starts, it probably would have been a non-issue who was going to go No. 1, but it didn’t happen that way and we had to make sure people were ready. I know it’s a big deal, and it might be somewhat of a deal to them, but when CC looks back, he’s going to worry about Octobers.”
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Sabathia started the last six season openers for New York and had nine straight overall dating back to his time in Cleveland, so this is certainly a notable development. It's also a remarkable achievement for Tanaka for a couple reasons.
First and foremost, there was no guarantee he'd be healthy enough to pitch following last July's diagnosis. So far though, Tanaka has looked every bit as strong as he did early last season, posting a dominant 1.74 ERA and 12/1 K/BB ratio in 10 Grapefruit League innings.
Beyond Tanaka's health, which is obviously the foremost concern for fans, it's easy to forget that only 13 months ago he was entirely new to the United States and had limited experience pitching against major league talent. He was forced to make a quick transition, and he did so smoothly, going 13-5 with a 2.77 ERA and 141/21 K/BB ratio in 136 innings.
Those numbers made the decision a no-brainer once Tanaka proved healthy, and indicate New York's investment will be worthwhile as long as the elbow holds.
"Absolutely it'll be a great honor for me to pitch on opening day," Tanaka said through an interpreter on Friday. "I think that being able to pitch on that very first day of the season, I think it says a lot about what the organization is expecting out of a pitcher. So in that sense I believe it would probably mean a lot to a lot of starting pitchers that are starting on opening day."
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Girardi also confirmed that Michael Pineda will start game two against Toronto and Sabathia is lined up for game three, which takes place on April 9. Nathan Eovaldi, who was acquired from the Miami Marlins, will make his Yankees debut against the Boston Red Sox on April 10. The Yankees won't need a fifth starter until the second week of the season.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
