Jonathan Loaisiga or David Hale? Yankees’ options for rotation opening appear down to 2

Yankees need to add a starting pitcher by this weekend, after placing Masahiro Tanaka on the 10-day disabled list on Saturday, June 9, 2018 (6/9/18) with strains in both of his hamstrings. Tanaka was hurt while running from third base to home plate on Friday, June 8, 2018 (6/8/18) to score on a sacrifice fly in the Yankees’ 4-1 win over the Mets.

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NEW YORK — The Yankees have been saying for two days that they have a good idea who will get the first shot to fill in for injured right-hander Masahiro Tanaka, who went on the disabled list on Saturday with strains to both of his hamstrings.

Who?

The Yankees aren’t saying, but they are dropping hints by eliminating candidates to take Tanaka’s first turn either next Friday night or Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Before Sunday night’s Subway Series game at Citi Field, pitching coach Larry Rothschild ruled out turning to righty Luis Cessa, who is just returning from an April oblique injury come Monday with a rehab start for high A Tampa.

A day earlier, Rothschild made it clear that it won’t be No. 1 pitching prospect Justus Sheffield, a 22-year-old lefty who has pitched well this season, initially for Double-A Trenton and as of early May for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

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That leaves two realistic possibilities to get a call-up for a start at Yankee Stadium next weekend against the Tampa Bay Rays: Triple-A righty David Hale and Double-A righty Jonathan Loaisiga.

Hale, 30, has 69 games of big-league experience, including 20 starts, and he’s coming off two solid outings. The Princeton alum, however, is not on the Yankees’ 40-man roster and his scheduled outing on Sunday was rained out.

Hale now is slated to start Monday night for the RailRiders.

Loaisiga, 23, is on the Yankees’ 40, but he hasn’t pitched above Double-A and he wasn’t sharp on Sunday when allowing four runs over two-plus innings in Trenton’s 6-0 loss to Binghamton.

The favorite?

It’s a tossup even though Trenton manager Jay Bell recently dropped strong hints that Loaisiga would have double-jumped to the big leagues last Monday to start Game 2 of a day-night doubleheader in Detroit if not for the Yankees having two rainouts in Baltimore just prior to the twinbill.

A native of Nicaragua, Loaisiga is 3-1 with a 4.32 ERA in six starts for Trenton after beginning the season going 3-0 with a 1.35 ERA in four starts for high A Tampa. He’s allowed 47 hits in 45 innings at two levels, but impressively has struck out 48 while walking just four.

In his poor start on Sunday, Loaisiga was pulled in the third inning with his pitch count at 49 and his club trailing 2-0 after Binghamton loaded the bases with nobody out on a line single by Tim Tebow, Michael Levi getting hit by a pitch and a line single by Jeff McNeil.

Reliever Michael King let in two of three inherited runners.

After the game, Bell told reporters that the plan was to have Loaisiga throw about 50 pitches “and then to piggyback King,” who also is a starter.

Asked if Loaisiga was pulled in anticipation of a possible big-league call-up, Bell answered, “I am going to stay away from that. We know what happened (with Tanaka) and there is a possibility of things happening whether somebody from Triple-A makes a start or whatever.

“We’re always thinking about big-league options and making sure they are well taken care of at the big-league level. I don’t know what’s going to happen. (The Yankees) have not told me.” 

This was the second down start in three since May 27 for Loaisiga, who has a 6.75 ERA in the stretch.

“He’s had some good games this year,” Rothschild said of Loaisiga. “He was impressive in spring training. He’s a young guy that hasn’t pitched a whole lot, so we’ll have to see what that decision is when we get to it and who’s doing what in the next few days.”

As of Sunday, Loaisiga was still in the running for a double-jump to the big leagues.

“Necessity is the mother of invention, so we’ll have to see,” Rothschild said.

Hale has bounced around this season, as he was up with the Yankees twice and even pitched one game with the Minnesota Twins after leaving the organization for a few days.

Hale is 2-2 with a 4.58 ERA for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and is coming off consecutive good outings in which he’s pitched to a 2.31 ERA (11.2 IP, 3 ER). He also has allowed two runs over five innings in two relief outings with the Yankees and four runs in a three-inning relief appearance for the Twins.

“He’s done well,” Rothschild said. “At this point in his career, it’s pretty much what you’ve seen. He’s made some good adjustments during the course of this year. So we’ll see (who comes up). I don’t think we’re set on necessarily one things. We have an idea of where we want to go, but we’ll have to see where it all washes out.”

Yankees GM Brian Cashman guessed on Saturday that Tanaka will be sidelined for a month give or take, but the righty said he felt “good” on Sunday after he played catch in the outfield.

“We want to keep his arm in shape through this as much as we can without taxing his legs at all,” Rothschild said. “As the soreness is gone, we can do more and more, but that’s to be determined by when that happens.”

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.