The New York Yankees got some slightly concerning news regarding their ace righty on Thursday.
According to a report by Meredith Marakovits of YES Network, Masahiro Tanaka has been scratched from his scheduled start on Monday against the Toronto Blue Jays with a slight flexor mass strain. Fortunately, Yankees manager Joe Girardi stressed that the injury is not near the elbow where Tanaka suffered a partial tear of his UCL back in 2014. The Japanese import will still be shut down from throwing for the next five days, however.
Tanaka will not start Monday. MRI revealed slight strain in flexor mass. Girardi stressed its not near elbow. Won't pick up ball for 5 days
— Meredith Marakovits (@M_Marakovits) September 22, 2016
Tanaka, 27, has a 14-4 record with a 3.07 ERA and 165 strikeouts in 31 starts this season. The Yankees don’t seem likely to just shut Tanaka down for the year unless he’s dealing with something serious since they are only 2.5 games out of the second Wild Card spot in the American League at the moment.
With the amount of money they’re paying Tanaka though, they have incentive to err on the side of caution, so we’ll see how the Yanks choose to handle him.
H/T HardballTalk
