CLEVELAND — Their fingers firmly crossed ace pitcher Masahiro Tanaka’s right elbow soreness doesn’t lead to Tommy John surgery, the Yankees are awaiting the examination of arguably the most important hinge in team history.

Tanaka was sent to New York on Wednesday for an afternoon MRI exam. However, Tanaka will go to Seattle, possibly Thursday, to be examined by team doctor Chris Ahmad, who prefers to examine patients in person as well as look at an MRI. Ahmad is in Seattle for an orthopedics conference. The Yankees are trying to be proactive, and if Tanaka needs to be seen by another expert, most of the world’s top orthopedists are in Seattle.

The $175 million investment went on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday and his return is a very large and expensive question mark.

“Right now we are DLing him,’’ said manager Joe Girardi, who didn’t speculate how serious the problem is. “It’s a big loss anytime you lose a starting pitcher because they are hard to replace.’’

According to Girardi, Tanaka told the trainers late Tuesday night he was experiencing soreness after absorbing a 5-3 loss to the Indians in which he allowed five earned runs and 10 hits in 6²/₃ innings. The earned runs and hits were season highs for the 25-year-old All-Star who, with the bullpen, has kept the Yankees afloat in the AL East with a 12-4 record and 2.51 ERA. However, Tanaka has lost three of his last four starts.

There were no alarming signs Tuesday night that Tanaka was hurt. His fastball was clocked at 90-to-91 mph in the opening two innings then reached 94 and 95. He did abandon the signature splitter early, instead going with a sharp slider. Still, nobody saw anything that set off alarms.

“I didn’t think anything of it,’’ said Brian McCann, who caught Tanaka. “I walked in [the clubhouse] and heard the news. The only thing [Tuesday] was that his pitches didn’t have the sharp action like in the past, but he still pitched good. I didn’t notice anything. I was surprised when I came in.’’

Because Tanaka, who was named to the American League All-Star team, was supposed to start Sunday night in Baltimore, Girardi needs somebody to face the AL East leaders. The favorite is struggling Chase Whitley, who moved from the rotation to the bullpen to make room for Brandon McCarthy, Wednesday night’s starter. However, Whitley pitched two innings of relief in the Yankees’ 5-4, 14-inning win on Wednesday and it was not certain he will be available Sunday.

Tanaka’s injury is the latest to the Opening Day five-man rotation, 80 percent of which is currently on the DL.

Ivan Nova is out for the season after Tommy John surgery. He last pitched April 19. CC Sabathia is a candidate to miss the rest of the year because of his right knee that could require microfracture surgery, which may end his career. He has been out since May 10.

Michael Pineda is attempting to come back from a teres major muscle problem in the back and hasn’t worked since April 23 when he was tossed out of the game for slapping pine tar on the neck and subsequently suspended for 10 games. Now, Tanaka’s future is questionable.

That leaves Hiroki Kuroda as the only starter who hasn’t been injured. The Yankees get roughly 65 percent of Sabathia’s $23 million salary for this year and 80 percent of the remaining $63 million on the contract if he never pitches again, and it’s likely the team has the same policy on Tanaka, who is in the first year of a seven-year deal for $155 million and making $22 million this season.

“We are hoping for good news. You worry about everybody but he is pretty special,’’ outfielder Brett Gardner said of Tanaka. “It didn’t go through my mind that he was hurting.’’

Clearly, he was. Now the Yankees will find out how much it will hurt them. It could be a strained muscle, ligament or tendon. Or Tanaka could be headed for Tommy John surgery, a crushing blow hard to recover from.