TAMPA, Fla. _ An eyebrow or two was raised two weeks ago when Masahiro Tanaka said he wouldn't play in this year's World Baseball Classic, something the right-hander did in 2009 and 2013.
Larry Rothschild said Monday it has nothing to do with the pitcher's health, always Yankees fans primary concern with Tanaka.
"He's ahead of where he was last year," the Yankees pitching coach said early Monday afternoon. "He's already been on the mound a little bit. Coming in, he seems to be in a good place."
Tanaka, who worked out at the club's minor-league complex Monday and is expected to throw a bullpen Wednesday, entered last spring a bit behind as he underwent a procedure to remove a bone spur in his right elbow shortly after the 2015 season ended.
The deliberate spring pace hardly acted as a hindrance as Tanaka went 14-4 with a 3.07 ERA in 31 games.
General manager Brian Cashman has said the 28-year-old Tanaka, who missed his final scheduled start of last season with a minor flexor mass strain in his right forearm, will likely be brought along slowly again, though exactly how that plays out hasn't been determined.
"Hard to tell until we get some sides in and stuff, but he understands what spring training is for," Rothschild said. "Last year everybody was concerned all through spring about him, about his stuff and this and that, but he knew what he was doing in getting ready for the season. He's got a pretty good understanding, in spite of everything that's going on around him."
That is partly a reference to the relentless media attention Tanaka receives from the sizable Japanese press corps that covers his every move, though his position as the clear-cut Yankees ace brings plenty of scrutiny as well.
That attention won't dissipate this season, a big one for Tanaka in a variety of ways. Tanaka, 39-16 with a 3.12 ERA in three seasons since signing a seven-year, $155-million contract with the Yankees, has an out clause he can exercise after the season. It is something he's almost sure to do if his 2017 comes close to approaching his 2016, when he logged 199 2/3 innings, his most since coming to the majors, and was in the thick of the American League ERA race for starting pitchers. More often than not, Tanaka resembled the pitcher he was during his rookie season when he was 11-1 with a 1.99 ERA after 14 starts.
Later that season, Tanaka was diagnosed with a slight tear in his ulnar collateral ligament that has not required surgery but is a consistent source of conjecture _ just not by the Yankees.
"Same as with every pitcher, you keep your eyes and ears open and try to understand what's going on with him," Rothschild said. "But I don't know that it's going to be that much different as it would be with anybody else."
Cashman said during the GM meetings in November that Tanaka, CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda were "locked" into the 2017 rotation. Unless he is able to secure more proven arms from the outside, the final two spots are likely to come from a pool that includes right-handers Adam Warren, Luis Severino, Luis Cessa, Bryan Mitchell and Chad Green.
Rothschild said he's "confident" the answers to those rotation questions are in camp.
"And hopefully there's a few nice surprises for us," he said, "because there's some kids that are capable of doing that, surprising us."
