1. Luis Severino: Sept. 27, (5 days rest) Oct. 3 wild card game v. Minnesota; Yanks won 8-4 but Severino retired only one batter and allowed 3 runs, all earned.
2. Sonny Gray: Sept. 28, (6 days rest) Oct. 5 in Cleveland; Yanks lost 4-0. Gray: 3.33 innings, 3 runs, all earned.
3. CC Sabathia: Sept. 30, (5 days rest) Oct. 6 in Cleveland; Yanks lost 9-8 in 13 innings, blowing a five run lead. Sabathia: 5.33 innings, 4 runs, 2 earned.
Tanaka: Sept, 29, (8 days rest) for tomorrow's game on Oct. 8 in which the Yankees, ironically, are facing elimination in the five game series.
All four were rested. Yankee manager Joe Girardi arranged the dates so that Tanaka would not start the wild card game. But Tanaka had this much rest for the games in Cleveland: 5 days and 6 days. That's plenty. Plus, in his Sept. 30 start Tanaka pitched seven shutout innings and struck out 15. Yes, 15 SO!
But Girardi skipped Tanaka for the two games in Cleveland. Additionally strange is that Sabathia is the only lefty the Yankees intended to start and instead of pitching their lefty in Yankee Stadium, which favors lefty pitchers, the Yankees forced Sabathia ahead of Tanaka.
It's very likely that this was an organization decision with a lot of influence from general manager Brian Cashman. What extenuating circumstances could have influenced Cashman?
Sony Gray: July 31, 2017: Traded by the Oakland Athletics with international bonus slot money to the New York Yankees for James Kaprielian (minors), Jorge Mateo (minors) and Dustin Fowler.
Cashman doesn't want to look bad after trading for Sonny Gray just two months ago.
Masahiro Tanaka:
| Year | Age | Tm | Salary | SrvTm | Sources | Notes/Other Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 25 | New York Yankees | $22,000,000 | 0.000 | contracts | |
| 2015 | 26 | New York Yankees | $22,000,000 | 1.000 | contracts | |
| 2016 | 27 | New York Yankees | $22,000,000 | 2.000 | ||
| 2017 | 28 | New York Yankees | $22,000,000 | 3.000 | contracts | |
| 2018 | 29 | New York Yankees | $22,000,000 | may opt out of contract after 2017 season | ||
| 2019 | 30 | New York Yankees | $22,000,000 | |||
| 2020 | 31 | New York Yankees | $23,000,000 | |||
| Earliest Free Agent: 2020 | ||||||
| Career to date (may be incomplete) | $88,000,000 | Does not include future salaries ($67M) | ||||
After this 2017 season Tanaka is allowed to opt out of his contract, foregoing annual pay for the next three seasons of $22, $22, $23 million.
Cashman may be experiencing buyer's regret and is trying to humiliate Tanaka into opting out when it's probably in Tanaka's best interests to stay with the Yankees and collect the $67 million that the Yankees owe him for 2018-2020. Cashman has had buyer's regret over the years with other players: Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and the really big one: yes, Alex Rodriguez! The Yankees even screwed A-Rod out of that six million dollar milestone money.
It's either that or simply general purpose incompetence.
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