Masahiro Tanaka ready for New York Yankees season

NEW YORK – Masahiro Tanaka made it all the way through spring training. He threw every bullpen, made every start, and never once complained about pain or discomfort in his elbow. His final spring outing was completed on Tuesday, and it wasn't until the next day that one of the best pitchers of the past two decades chimed in on the situation.

And Pedro Martinez was not impressed.

As Tanaka prepares to make his first ever Opening Day start for the Yankees on Monday afternoon, it's clear that not everyone is optimistic the young right-hander will make it through this season healthy and effective. There are plenty who doubt him, but Tanaka doesn't seem to be one of them.

"For me, I know where I'm at," Tanaka said. "And I feel good. So I think that's the most important. I feel good."

Martinez disagrees. He thinks Tanaka will be hurt by the end of the year. In fact, Martinez thinks Tanaka is hurt already.

"Tanaka is not healthy right now because I believe Tanaka is hesitant to let it go," Martinez said in a Sirius/XM radio interview last week. "Tanaka is hanging all those breaking balls that he is throwing. The only pitch he is committing to is the split finger, and his problems are actually in a place where you don't need to put any more stress, which is the elbow. And he's hesitant. He's hesitating to throw his fastball, and he's hanging every breaking ball he's throwing out there. Plus his velocity is not there yet."

It's a common opinion, and one that perhaps carries extra weight coming from a Hall of Fame pitcher. But it's also an opinion that Tanaka says – with all due respect, he notes – is incorrect.

Ever since suffering a slight tear of his ulnar collateral ligament last summer, Tanaka has been a source of remarkable scrutiny and uncertainty. On the advice of multiple orthopedic specialists, Tanaka elected not to have Tommy John surgery last year. He rehabbed his way back into games, but he and the Yankees know his elbow is damaged, leaving an increased risk that it could blow out at any moment.

Some believe surgery is inevitable, but plenty of pitchers have postponed Tommy John surgery for years and pitched well despite a partial ligament tear. Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright is one of the most often cited examples.

Tanaka insists his velocity was down this spring because he was focused on two-seam fastballs, not four-seam fastballs. Tanaka said he still feels capable and willing to jump into the mid-90s when necessary, but he didn't feel the need or desire to show it this spring.

"If I wanted to, I could," Tanaka said.

As for breaking balls hanging up in the zone, Tanaka speculated that it's a small and unimpressive sample that Martinez was looking at.

"I think Pedro was looking at specifically the last game that I was pitching (on Tuesday)," Tanaka said. "And obviously, as you guys know too, my stuff wasn't the sharpest that day. The games prior to that, I felt my breaking balls were there. In the bullpen, I've been throwing them pretty well, so I'm not really worried about that either. Also, I was being able to get some swings for misses too, so I'm pretty confident where I am with my breaking balls."

Even with a rocky outing in that final spring start – three runs in 4.1 innings – Tanaka finished the spring with a 3.07 ERA. He walked just one batter and struck out 13. The Yankees are expecting a similar level of production during the season after seeing Tanaka pitch to a 2.77 ERA in last year's dominant-when-healthy big league debut.

"Looking back at last year, I think there was a lot of attention for me on how I would pitch being my first year here," Tanaka said. "There were certain pressures. But this year I'm not feeling that. For now, I think I'm a little bit more relaxed."

Manager Joe Girardi has said over and over again that he refuses to hold his breath with every Tanaka pitch, and general manager Brian Cashman said he has no regrets about electing to forgo surgery last season.

The Yankees might slightly limit Tanaka's workload by keeping him on an every-six-days schedule, but otherwise they're going to let him loose and stick with him as long as possible

"Whatever's going to be is going to be," Cashman said. "But right now he feels great, he feels healthy, and he's had a productive spring. … We obviously want him to stay healthy and hope he stays healthy as does he but I can't predict the future."

Chad Jennings covers the Yankees for the Westchester, N.Y., Journal News