The New York Yankees have placed starter Masahiro Tanaka on the 15-day disabled list with a forearm strain and the pitcher could be out for at least one month while recovering after an MRI found no major damage in his arm, but did find a muscle strain.
According to Hardball Talk, the Yankees placed Tanaka on the disabled list after he previously complained about dealing with "pain in his right wrist." Tanaka is on the DL for the second time in his career after dealing with a torn UCL in his elbow last year and now he could be out for at least a month, according to general manager Brian Cashman.
Cashman said that a month was "conservatively" how much Tanaka could be out and it comes just a few weeks into the season. Tanaka is just 26-years-old and when he signed with the Yankees, some scouts and other teams had concerns about fatigue from all the innings he pitched in Japan. When Tanaka has been healthy he has been great for the Yankees and he has a 3.22 ERA in 22 innings this season.
Jack Curry from YES broke the news on Twitter and Tanaka will be "shut down for 7-10 days" and could be out for a month. Tanaka was the Opening Day starter for the Yankees and he was having a great year in 2014 before dealing with an elbow injury. Tanaka started 20 games in 2014 and went 13-5 with 141 strikeouts in 136 innings while putting up a 2.77 ERA.
The Yankees just brought up Chase Whitley to make a spot start and now he could join the rotation. The team has Michael Pineda, CC Sabathia, Adam Warren and Nathan Eovaldi in the rotation along with Tanaka and now those players will have to step up with him out.
