NEW YORK – Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka is unsure whether he will be able to make his first turn through the rotation while recovering from a line hit to his head.
Tanaka, 31, was hit on the right side near the temple by Giancarlo Stanton’s shot during batting practice on July 4. While the law says he has no concussion symptoms, he has not dumped a mound since then.
New York opens the season on July 23 in Washington and Tanaka is projected as part of a rotation behind new ace Gerrit Cole, along with James Paxton, JA Happ and perhaps Jordan Montgomery. You still hope to avoid missing any start.
“I want to be optimistic and say yes,” Tanaka said Tuesday through a translator. “But obviously the injury is to the head, so I think it’s something that I have to be careful and careful about, more than other injuries.”
Right fielder Aaron Judge missed his third consecutive intrasquad game with a stiff neck, but took batting practice on the field. Manager Aaron Boone said Judge could have played if it had been a regular season game and is probably in the lineup on Wednesday.
“It’s exactly what it comes down to from a swing point of view, how much it would affect him, how much, it could be something that leads to a bad habit or something,” Boone said. “I feel like it’s a short-term thing that he will work for.”
Tanaka was taken to a hospital for a CT scan after being beaten. New York submitted Tanaka through the concussion protocol, but said she had not felt any symptoms.
“Obviously, we are taking things a little more carefully now. But the good thing is that I feel good now,” said Tanaka. “I feel very lucky because it could have been something much worse.”
He said he doesn’t think he is afraid of being hit again.
“I think everything will be fine once I get on the mound,” said Tanaka. “But you really don’t know until you face a live hitter and at that point, you can feel some worries or concerns going up on the mound. But from now on, I feel good going back to the mound.”
Tanaka is 75-43 with a 3.75 ERA in six seasons with the Yankees and is entering the final season of a seven-year contract.
After the pandemic halted spring training in March, Tanaka initially stayed near the Yankees’ spring training complex in Florida, then returned to Japan with her family. He did not detail whether his decision was tied to allegations of threats against Asians in the United States, but said he was “considering what is best for the family.”
“Obviously, there were some incidents, but someone had to make a decision about what we were going to do,” he said.
ESPN’s Marly Rivera and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
.
