Masahiro Tanaka expected to start next week for Yankees

OAKLAND, Calif. -- After an absence of nearly five weeks, Masahiro Tanaka was set to rejoin the New York Yankees in Oakland on Thursday night and is likely to make a start next week when the Yankees travel to Seattle for a three-game series against the Mariners, according to manager Joe Girardi.

Tanaka, who last pitched in the major leagues on April 23 and has been on the disabled list since April 29 with tendinitis in his right wrist and a strain of the right forearm, is likely to start either Tuesday or Wednesday, Girardi said.

"We'll have a heart-to-heart talk with him, how he feels about where he's at," Girardi said. "You don't want someone going out there if they don't quite feel that they're ready to go. In a perfect world, he would start somewhere in Seattle."

Tanaka threw his second rehab start for the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders on Wednesday, allowing three earned runs on four hits, including a home run, in three innings against the Boston Red Sox affiliate in Pawtucket.

"His slider was really good, he didn't throw a ton of splits," Girardi said of Tanaka's outing. "He made a few mistakes with a fastball and a split. But the big thing for us is that he came out healthy."

Girardi attributed Tanaka's struggles Wednesday to unfamiliarity with the minor league lineup he was facing.

"When you send a big-league pitcher, someone who has had a ton of success in Japan and had success here last year, to a Triple-A game, you don't always see the same guy that you would see at the big-league level," he said. "They don't prepare the same exactly because they don't have all the scouting reports and the video tape. The big thing is we have to know how he feels."

Girardi said that according to reports he had gotten, Tanaka came out of Wednesday's outing feeling fine. Tanaka reported pain in his wrist after throwing a bullpen session four days after his last start. A subsequent MRI revealed tendinitis and the forearm strain, which the Yankees have said was asymptomatic.

But it is obvious the Yankees are treading lightly with Tanaka, the $155 million Japanese standout whose rookie season in MLB was cut short last July when he suffered a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament during a start against the Indians in Cleveland.

The Yankees opted not to pursue the usual course of action with such an injury -- Tommy John surgery -- in favor of a non-surgical protocol that kept him off the mound until the last week of the season.

Girardi said Tanaka -- who threw 62 pitches on Wednesday -- would be on a pitch count in his first start back of between 80 to 90 pitches, and he will be given an extra day between starts as often as possible.

The manager also acknowledged that players have a tendency to downplay injuries and overstate their fitness out of a competitive desire to be out on the field. Still, he said there was little Tanaka could say in his meeting with the Yankees that was likely to derail plans to send him back out to the mound next week.

"He said he felt good today, so you've got to believe him," Girardi said. "And I think if he wasn't throwing 93, and you saw things where his slider wasn't sharp, you'd think: OK, maybe he's not being honest with us. But with those things, I think you have to believe him."

Tanaka was 2-1 with a 3.22 ERA at the time of his injury, and a successful return to the mound could provide the Yankees rotation a lift after their recent skid of 10 losses in 11 games before their three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals at home.

"It will be nice to have him back," Girardi said. "The one thing that you hope during the course of the season is that you have your players most of the time. We've lost two starters and a reliever, but knock on wood, we're getting healthier."

If Tanaka is reinstated to the roster, the Yankees will have to demote a starter; the likeliest candidates are Adam Warren, who has performed well as a starter his season but pitched effectively out of the bullpen last season, or Chris Capuano, who is 0-2 with a 7.36 ERA in two starts since returning from a quad strain suffered in spring training that cost him the first six weeks of the season.