Brian Cashman is not alarmed Masahiro Tanaka might not be ready to throw off a bullpen mound when pitchers and catchers open spring training in Tampa next week.
Yet, considering the Yankees’ $175 million investment has been on the disabled list in each of his first two seasons and is returning from surgery to remove a bone spur from his right elbow, anything with Tanaka is worth paying attention to.
“He will enter spring training maybe a little behind for precautionary reasons,’’ Cashman, the Yankees’ general manager, said Thursday night at NYY Steak in Midtown where Cashman and Red Sox general manager Dave Dombrowski got together for a charity event benefiting the respective organizations.