More On Tanaka

The Yanks had to do it.  Because of injuries in the system to guys like Pineda and Banuelos, and the big league flameouts of Hughes and Joba, the Yanks needed a young dynamic starter to help now, but also to begin the transition to a younger staff over the next several years.  Now they line up:

Sabathia
Kuroda
Tanaka
Nova
Phelps?

That's not so bad.  But the rotation next year, which will probably lose Kurodo, would be unthinkable without Tanaka.

The next guys to help from the system are likely Pineda and Banuelos, but they were still recovering from injuries and and Manny's case, he still has to rebuild his innings.   So he might not be available to help the rotation next year.

Hopefully, Nova will discover some consistency in his age 27 year, and Phelps will show that he's more than a #5.    That would allow them to slot into 3 and 4 next year when Kuroda will probably be gone.

So getting Tanaka was very necessary and not just for this year.    This also saves the Yanks from what was a terrible pitchers market in FA.   And since teams are locking up guys like Kershaw, Felix and Verlander these days, they had no other option for getting the stalwart they needed.