Masahiro Tanaka’s Health Concerns Could Mean Tommy John Surgery
With concerns over his health after a short, ineffective outing on Opening Day, Masahiro Tanaka‘s future could hold one Tommy John surgery.
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Coming over from Japan before last season as a prime commodity in the free agent market, Masahiro Tanaka joined the New York Yankees with high hopes on everyone’s mind. This guy was going to be the future of the organization and his first couple months in the majors furthered that belief.
However, in July of 2014, the amazing ‘rookie’ season for Tanaka was cut short as he was experiencing elbow problems. The issues turned out to be major, it was a tear of the young pitcher’s UCL which, more often than not, means a Tommy John surgery is imminent.
According to John Harper of the New York Daily News, Tanaka’s health concerns mean TJ surgery is almost inevitable at this point.
Yes, it’s possible that the elbow injury that sidelined the pitcher from July 2014 through the end of September 2014 never fully healed, but manager Joe Girardi was positive that Tanaka’s arm would be able to make it through an entire season in 2015.
In his first start against the Toronto Blue Jays, Tanaka pitched just four lifeless innings, totaling 82 pitches. The result? Oh, just five hits, five runs, four earned and two walks while earning his first loss of the season.
The main belief as to why Tommy John might be considered ‘inevitable’? Last year, Tanaka’s velocity was topping out at around 93 mph while this year the top speeds are reaching just about 90 mph for his two-seam fastball. The velocity is down and he is throwing less and less fastballs as the game wears on.
Asked why he was turning to off-speed stuff, he replied with, “Because [the fastballs] were being hit.”
Masahiro Tanaka is on a dangerous path and let’s all hope that the young ace doesn’t have to face a future with arm problems that derail his promising career.
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