TAMPA — Yu Darvish and Cliff Lee are cautionary tales that pitchers’ arms are as fragile as champagne glasses in a twister, even in March, when nothing counts.
Darvish, the Rangers’ ace, and Lee, a big piece of the Phillies’ staff, are experiencing arm trouble before the exhibition season clears its throat.
Lee is having an MRI exam on his left elbow Tuesday and Darvish had one taken Friday on the right hinge and will get a second opinion Tuesday.
Each hurler went through problems a year ago, when Darvish pitched in 22 games due to a forearm problem and Lee was limited to 13 games because of a balky elbow.
Their situations are similar to the Yankees, yet so far CC Sabathia and Masahiro Tanaka haven’t missed a workout while Darvish and Lee have turned into possible Tommy John surgery candidates.
“I am really encouraged, it seems like every day there has been a big injury,’’ manager Joe Girardi said after the Yankees beat the Nationals, 3-2, Sunday at George M. Steinbrenner Field. “Obviously they are the things you want to stay away from.’’
Sabathia, who was limited to eight games last season due to a right knee that required in-season surgery, will pitch in a simulated game sometime this week. Tanaka, who suffered a small tear in the right ulnar collateral ligament last July and with the team opted to rehab it instead of undergoing Tommy John, makes his exhibition season debut Thursday against the Braves in a night game at GMS Field.
Sabathia doesn’t need to pitch in an exhibition game at this point of March to be ready at the start of the season.
“Just because I haven’t had a setback,’’ Sabathia said of the surgically repaired right knee. “I feel great.’’
Sunday, Sabathia, on pace to pitch Opening Day if Girardi wants to give him that plum assignment, threw a 30-pitch batting practice session. Working without a screen in front of the mound, the veteran lefty faced left-handed hitter Greg Bird and right-handed hitter Rob Refsnyder.
“[Pitching coach] Larry [Rothschild] told me they were hot, swinging the bats good, that made me feel good,’’ said Sabathia, who threw several impressive changeups and finished the exercise by breaking Bird’s back on the final pitch.
“I feel 100 percent, I am ready to make the next step,’’ Sabathia said. “I will throw a [simulated] game the next time.’’
That could be Thursday or Friday.
“We are moving at a pace we set before spring training, one step at a time,’’ Sabathia said.
Tanaka, 26, is one of five Yankees starters — at this point, Michael Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi and Chris Capuano are the other three — however, because of how good he was last season (13-5; 2.77 ERA in 20 games) and the uncertainty if the next pitch will reduce the elbow to spaghetti, the $175 million investment is looked upon as the most important starter.
He breezed through a simulated game Saturday at GMS Field and hasn’t admitted to any discomfort in the elbow region.
Now, however, the pressure increases but nowhere near what it will be in April, when hitters will have a full spring of swinging and Tanaka will attempt to be the pitcher he was before getting hurt.