One of the few Yankees veterans not to be seriously mentioned in trade rumors this season is Masahiro Tanaka. Every other member of the team’s rotation has been tossed around the rumor mill over the past month, but Tanaka has been exempt for a few reasons.
First, Tanaka is arguably the Yankees best player at this point. His 3.3 wins above replacement by FanGraphs’ metric is the most on the team. He had a strong argument for an All Star nod this year, and has a 3.00 ERA and 3.26 FIP in 129 innings pitched through 20 starts.