Masahiro Tanaka was back in the fold as his second season with the New York Yankees officially got under way after reporting to camp in Tampa, Florida, on Tuesday.
Tanaka, who arrived the previous day, was in high spirits and showing no signs of trouble from a damaged right elbow. The righty threw about 70 pitches during long toss at the team's minor league complex with pitching coach Larry Rothschild watching.
Rothschild suggested that Tanaka can likely take on a similar spring training workload to last season after he going through a normal offseason training regimen in Japan and reporting no issues with his elbow.
Tanaka got off to a brilliant start in his rookie season with the Yankees in 2014, dominating through his first 17 starts before suffering a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in July. He plans to address the media on Friday, when Yankees pitchers and catchers are due to report.
"You have to be aware of it, but we'll be aware to put schedules together and things like that to try to keep him healthy," Rothschild was quoted saying on MLB.com. "So far, everything has been good. That doesn't mean that it will be going forward, but we're going to do everything we can to make sure that hopefully it is."
"We won't rush him into it; I want to see what he's done. I know what he's done (in Japan), I just want to see how much effort and force he's using, and then we'll go from there," he said.
Despite being sidelined for more than two months, Tanaka went 13-5 with a 2.77 ERA in his first big league season.