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Harper: Masahiro Tanaka must prove he is Yankees' ace
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Harper: Masahiro Tanaka must prove he is Yankees' ace

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Masahiro Tanaka tosses two scoreless innings in spring training but plenty of questions still surround the $175 million man on whether or not he can be the Yankees' ace.Mike Carlson/AP

Masahiro Tanaka tosses two scoreless innings in spring training but plenty of questions still surround the $175 million man on whether or not he can be the Yankees’ ace.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — A year later, Masahiro Tanaka has proven he can survive a season despite a tear in his elbow ligament, yet now he is dogged by a question that is no less crucial for the Yankees:

Simply put, is he an ace?

Or to put it another way: Is he the guy the Yanks thought they were getting for $175 million two years ago?

Off of last year you’d have to say no. That could change this season, especially if the bone spur that Tanaka had surgically removed from his elbow during the winter affected him last season.

And on Sunday, after he threw two scoreless innings against the Phillies in his spring training debut, he said it did bother him last season — “in between starts when I felt the inflammation,” as he put it.

Yet Tanaka also insisted it wasn’t a factor on game days, so it’s anybody guess how much it really did affect him. And it’s not as if he didn’t have a solid season with some extremely high peaks.

Still, something needs to be better for him to get back to the form he showed in 2014, before he was shut down in July because of the ligament tear.

Because overall in 2015 his 3.51 ERA and the rather alarming 1.5 home runs per nine innings Tanaka surrendered were hardly ace-like.

Which matters because the Yankees need that No. 1 starter in their rotation to match up with somebody like Dallas Keuchel in last year’s wild-card game, when Tanaka lasted only five innings, giving up two solo home runs but pitching out of trouble repeatedly.

Perhaps Luis Severino will blossom into that ace for the Yankees, but that’s no guarantee.

As for Tanaka, as much as the Yankees downplay questions about his velocity, there’s no avoiding them. Last season his fastball averaged 91.8 mph, according to fangraphs.com. On Sunday he was in that same range.

“Very few guys can consistently dominate with a fastball at 90-92,” an AL scout said Sunday, “especially in today’s game. As good as his off-speed stuff is, especially the splitter, the home runs tell you he can’t get away without spot-on command. That’s where extra velocity gives you a margin of error.”

Joe Girardi, meanwhile, often said last year that he always considered Tanaka a finesse pitcher who relied heavily on his off-speed stuff. As to the question of whether the bone spur limited him in any way last season, Girardi may be curious as well to find out. “There were times when he was very good last season,” he said. “But you never know when a guy is going to go out there with his ‘A’ stuff. It could have affected him.”

There’s no doubt Tanaka’s splitter has always been his primary strikeout pitch, diving out of the strike zone at about 86 mph. Some days mixing that with his slider and slow curve, he only needs to use his fastball sparingly and he can still breeze through a lineup.

In 11 of his 23 starts last season, in fact, he gave up two runs or fewer, and for the season he gave up only 126 hits in 154 innings.

So he’s tough to hit when he’s on.

But he also paid for hanging a lot of those sliders and curves last season, which is how he gave up 25 home runs. That was four short of the highest total allowed in the AL, yet Tanaka made only 24 starts because of six weeks on disabled list with a forearm strain.

Throw in the two more long balls he gave up in the wild-card game, and that total makes you wonder if the tear in the elbow ligament compromises Tanaka in some way, despite the fact that he can pitch effectively with it.

It’s worth remembering, after all, that Tanaka came here from Japan with the reputation of being able to reach back for a mid-90s fastball whenever he needed it.

In fact, in spring training of 2014 I quoted Billy Eppler, then Brian Cashman’s assistant GM who is now the Angels’ GM, to that effect:

“His fastball ranges from 89 to 97,” Eppler said then. “He adds and subtracts depending on the situation. He’ll sit at 91 at times but then he’ll jump up to 97 with a runner in scoring position.”

So there is at least some mystery in the velocity. Still, 17 starts into his Yankee career, Tanaka was 12-3 with a 2.27 ERA. Three starts later he was on the disabled list with the torn ligament.

I asked him Sunday if he can get back that pre-injury type of dominance.

“Yes,” he said through his translator, “I do feel like I can back to that level.”

Because the elbow feels better?

“Yes,” he said again, “because the elbow feels better.”

Maybe he was just giving the answer he figured would make the questions stop. Or maybe he can be that ace the Yankees are paying for. We’ll see.

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