5 years agoNew York Yankees starting pitcher Masahiro Tanaka made his 2020 spring training debut on Wednesday, allowing two runs on two hits, no walks and two strikeouts. Tanaka comes into 2020 after having posted his worst career strikeout rate (19.6%) last season, and his swinging-strike rate (10.7%) dipped to its lowest level since 2016. Tanaka tweaked his pitch mix last season to feature more sliders and four-seam fastballs at the expense of his splitter, but the results were less than ideal, even as the slider generated an arsenal-best 16.68% swinging-strike rate. It’s encouraging to see Tanaka get two strikeouts over two innings early, but it’s too early to read into anything for now.--Sam Chinitz
Source: MLB.com