Igawa Says He’s Not Worried

From Bryan Hoch about Igawa’s rough outing:

“I’m not too worried at this point,” Igawa said through an interpreter. “It is the first game. I’m able to realize what I need to work on. That is a positive, moving forward.”

Igawa, 28, said that his control overall felt “pretty good” and that he is healthy. But those comments are ones that the Yankees have heard before — after continued struggles last season at the Major League level, Igawa spent time at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and also at Class A Tampa, working on his mechanics.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said that he was not concerned by Igawa’s rocky outing. The club plans to have Igawa pitch again on Tuesday against the Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla.

“He got himself in trouble with a walk and hit a guy,” Girardi said. “He didn’t finish off the slider, and he got in some bad counts, which hurt, but it’s early. Your pitches aren’t going to be as sharp now as they’re going to be in a month.”

Too be fair, it is very early. Igawa has a lot of time to work his issues out and hopefully he’ll get into the swing of things shortly. The Yankees invested a lot of money into him, so they’ll try to do whatever they can to make sure that he’s as effective as he can possibly be. However, he’s going to have to work extremely hard just to prove that he deserves a spot in the pen (long-man or lefty reliever).