Masahiro Tanaka suffered a setback in his recovery from an elbow injury as the New York Yankees announced on Friday that the ace pitcher has "general soreness" in his pitching arm.
Tanaka, who has not pitched in the major league for almost two months, threw 49 pitches in a simulated game on Thursday where he did not encounter any problem, but developed soreness on Friday.
"I want to be a little bit cautious. I haven't been throwing for a couple of weeks and then I started throwing again and built up the number of pitches that I've been throwing," Tanaka said via ESPN. "I think that's the reason why there's a little bit of extra soreness in the arm itself."
Yankees manager Joe Girardi clarified, though, that Tanaka is not feeling any pain in his elbow. But while the Japanese pitcher is expected to rest for a week, Girardi is still optimistic that Tanaka will be able to pitch again this season.
The 25-year-old Japanese, who is 12-4 with a 2.51 ERA and 135 strikeouts in 18 starts this season, has not played since July 8 as he was diagnosed with partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.
Tanaka could have undergone the dreaded Tommy John surgery, but the Yankees opted to try to rehabilitate the injured elbow first. Girardi said that should the team decides to shut Tanaka down for the remainder of the season, it would only mean that the right hander needs to undergo surgery.
"He's not going to throw a bullpen for about maybe a week," Girardi said. "But as I've said, if you shut him down, it's surgery. It's not like it's going to be, 'Well, let's see how it is next year.' We're going to proceed and it's either going to be he's healthy or he needs surgery."
When asked to gauge the possibility of hitting the September return target, Girardi admitted that he is unsure about it, but he is still hoping that Tanaka will be able to give them a boost as they try to secure a playoff spot in September.
"I don't have percentages," Girardi admitted. "We'd like him to pitch for us, too. But as I've said all along, this is something we're either going to know or not know when he gets into competition. Right now he's having a little setback. Let's hope that's all it is."
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