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Around the Empire
New York Post | George A. King III: One of the bigger, more annoying stories in yesterday’s link dump had to do with the Yankees saying they had no plans to pursue Masahiro Tanaka if he decided to opt-out. Apparently, much like the Clint Frazier story, it is all hogwash and hullabaloo. Hal himself said they will look at everything towards the end of year like they do with everyone. Cashman also stated that the allegations that they were “miffed” at Tanaka’s agent Casey Close is false, since they haven’t even started negotiations yet. We’re not even done with the first week of baseball, folks. Strap in.
Newsday | Erik Boland: Tanaka was asked about this matter yesterday and he is pretty much brushing it off and focusing on his game today against the Orioles. After his abysmal Opening Day, Tanaka is looking to get back out there so he can get some good results and putting Sunday’s game behind him. I think we’d all like that. Make those adjustments, Masahiro. We could use a positive outing.
New York Daily News | Mike Mazzeo: While Tanaka did not have the start to the season he hoped for, Chase Headley has. Well, there’s no proof that he wanted to start the season off well, but we’ll just assume that he did. Headley’s start to the 2017 season is slightly better than his start to the 2016 season. Slightly. I was at the game when Headley got his first extra base hit of 2016. It was in May. This year’s Headley has been the Shiftbuster. Keep it up, Chase.
Newsday | David Lennon: The expectations for the youth movement are high. Gary Sanchez destroyed a baseball for his first homer of the year yesterday. We expect many more of those. However, as to be expected, the Yankees will be going through the typical growing pains that any young team goes through. Of course, it’s still only Game 4. Plenty of baseball left to go. Plenty of time left to grow.