Masahiro Tanaka's Splitter is Completely Broken This Season

When Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka is locating his pitches, particularly his filthy splitter, he looks like one of the best pitchers in the game.

But that's been the issue this season.

Tanaka looked sharp early on in Tuesday's game against the New York Mets, but the third inning came around and he hung a splitter to Jeff McNeil, which was promptly roasted for a three-run homer. It's been instances like this that have plagued Tanaka this year, as he's already allowed 12 homers on the season.

When you add McNeil's long ball, that's six homers off his go-to splitter this season over just 292 pitches. That's already one more homer surrendered than last season, in more than 400 fewer pitches.

The splitter is Tanaka's best pitch, when he's locating it, but it hasn't been effective this year and it's getting hammered by opposing hitters. Opponents entered Tuesday's clash hitting better than .300 against the splitter, while slugging well over .500.

Tanaka has to fix his broken splitter before the end of the season, otherwise he could become a liability within the Yankees' rotation.