New York Yankees right-hander Masahiro Tanaka threw a 29-pitch bullpen session at Nationals Park in Washington on Monday.
Tanaka hasn’t started since April 23 because of wrist tendinitis and a mild forearm strain. He reported no problems Saturday after throwing 35 pitches in the bullpen Friday.
Tanaka could throw next in a rehab start in the minor leagues on Thursday.
Manager Joe Girardi said Sunday that Monday’s bullpen would be around 30 pitches.
“Just a normal bullpen,” Girardi said. “We just felt that it would be good for him to throw one more, because he hasn’t thrown in a while. We’ll make sure he’s sharp, then he’ll go down and make a rehab start.”
Tanaka’s rehab start likely would take place with either Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre or Double-A Trenton.
“That’s probably a decision that Brian will make,” Girardi said, referring to general manager Brian Cashman.
In four starts this season, Tanaka is 2-1 with a 3.22 ERA, including 24 strikeouts and seven wallks in 22 1/3 innings. He missed several months last season with a small ligament tear in his elbow but has said he doesn’t believe this year’s injury is connected to 2014.
Pitching coach Larry Rothchild and Girardi have speculated the wrist injury is derived from how Tanaka has thrown splitters in bullpen sessions, but the 26-year-old believes that is unrelated.
“Not really,” Tanaka said recently. “Just because I always throw that way and that was the way I was throwing those bullpens as well but I do understand our guys would say something like that because there’s always a possibility of something like that. As far as for me, that bullpen I was just throwing the splitter as I would always usually throw the splitter.”