Masahiro Tanaka remains sidelined with a mild concussion suffered when he was hit in the head by a line drive during a live BP session last weekend, and while he is "feeling good" and the team is hopeful he will be back soon, that's never a given when it comes to head injuries.
"The reality is he's doing well. He's responding well," manager Aaron Boone said during his daily Zoom call with the media Tuesday. "But we also want to be incredibly careful with this and make sure he's checking all the boxes while he's in concussion protocol."
The Yankees got a good look at top prospect Clarke Schmidt and fledgling rookie Mike King in simulated games over the last two days, but manager Aaron Boone said during his post-game Zoom session Tuesday night that if Tanaka isn't a go at least by the time the Yankees' fifth game comes around three weeks from now, the team could get "creative" when it comes to filling that spot.
"Obviously, to start the season, you're going to have 30 players, so you're going to have more pitching to choose from," Boone said Tuesday. "So there may be days in there where you do get a little creative, where it's a bullpen day, or you try and maximize your roster as best as possible and put guys in positions to where they can really impact the game on a given day."
Gerrit Cole, James Paxton, J.A. Happ, and Jordan Montgomery are likely locked into the top four spots, and with the Yankees' off-day on Day 2 of the regular season, they could theoretically skip a spot and not need a nominal fifth starter until Aug. 1, giving Tanaka almost a full month to recover.
With 60 games in 67 days, though, that might not be optimal, and with that 30-man roster in week one and a 28-man roster the following two weeks, Boone intimated that he might keep some extra arms at his disposal early on – and he's comfortable with that.
"We feel like our depth of pitchers; from the 12th and 13th pitcher to our 20th, 21st, 22nd pitchers, we feel like they are potentially capable of getting important outs for us," Boone said.
And, to be fair to Boone, pitching depth is always necessary, not just this year. Last year's top five starters – Tanaka, Happ, Paxton, Domingo German, and CC Sabathia, in that order – made 136 starts total, and Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery, who were injured or rehabbing much of the year, made four more total in September.
That still left 22 games open, and 18 of those went to an opener, 15 of which saw Chad Green start – and Green was very good in that role, posting a 3.72 ERA that, if qualified, would've been better than any of the Top 5 starters' numbers on the season.
No matter what, though, the Yankees' depth will be challenged, even after strong starts from King and Schmidt this week; beyond Tanaka's concussion, the team has James Paxton coming back from offseason back surgery, Jordan Montgomery in his first full year post-Tommy John surgery, and J.A. Happ coming off a subpar season, and of their depth, Luis Cessa is out of camp after testing positive for coronavirus, and Jonathan Loaisiga just arrived Tuesday to begin intake testing after being unable to leave his native Nicaragua.
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