While the St. Louis Cardinals and Oakland Athletics are looking to prepare their postseason rosters, the New York Yankees are just trying to figure out a way to make it there. And that begins with starting pitcher Masahiro Tanaka, who may return to the mound this weekend.
Tanaka has been out since July 8 with a partially torn UCL and many feared he would require Tommy John surgery, but after receiving multiple opinions, all of the doctors suggested the right-hander should attempt to rehab the injury and avoid the procedure. He's been doing just that and has come a long way since being able to throw lightly for the first time back on August 4. He threw his second simulated game on Monday, tossing 65 pitches in five innings and topping out at 92 mph. He also gave up six hits and recorded four strikeouts.
Manager Joe Girardi and the Yankees previously noted that it's imperative they test out Tanaka's arm in at least one more game before the season ends because they need to know if he's healthy enough moving forward. If he's not, they'll be able to get the surgery done faster instead of having him injure himself in spring training or early in the season and lose him for even longer. It is believed the Yankees will wait until Tuesday to make a decision to see how Tanaka's arm feels a day after the simulated game.
The Yankees are five games back of the Kansas City Royals for the final playoff spot, but the Cardinals and Athletics are in the playoffs as of now and are trying to figure out how to construct their postseason rotation. Cardinals starter Michael Wacha recently returned after being out for more than two months because of a stress reaction in his right shoulder. He struggled in his first two starts back (seven innings pitched with a 7.72 ERA and 1.86 WHIP), which could lead to speculation that he'll be in the bullpen during the postseason. The team skipped his start yesterday and instead had him throw a 30-pitch bullpen session to work on his control and see if his shoulder was doing OK.
"I don't know if (the bullpen) is the best option. As we start measuring what would be more taxing on a guy - the up, the down, the less rest - I think there are different viewpoints on this," said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, in this St. Louis Post-Dispatch article. "We like him as a starter. We like watching him in big situations, too. So, we'll take our time, see what we've got."
In Oakland, the same goes for starter Jason Hammel. The A's recently shuffled up their rotation to have Scott Kazmir, Jeff Samardzija and Sonny Gray to pitch their three-game series against the Texas Rangers this week, which takes Hammel off the mound for the year's final game. This also makes Jon Lester available for a tiebreaking playoff game or a one-game wild card playoff. And it looks like Hammel (4.36 ERA) could be left off the four-man rotation in October because Lester (2.30 ERA), Gray (3.18 ERA), Kazmir (3.32 ERA), and Samardzija (3.41 ERA) have all pitched better than he has.
St. Louis has 12 games left and Oakland has 13, so we'll see how their rotations do down the stretch before their managers make a final decision on the postseason rosters.
