Masahiro Tanaka thumbed his nose at disaster in 2016, submitting his best season as a pro in the shadow of major concerns about his partially torn ulnar collateral ligament.

It must be the injury concern that suppresses his current market value -- the New York Yankees' ace is currently the 20th pitcher off the board, per the FantasyPros average draft position aggregate, despite being one of the strongest ratio assets across the MLB last year.

There is some fear that Tanaka’s stingy 0.99 homers per nine will regress, but so too might his somewhat bloated 1.62 walks per nine. After all, Tanaka’s control was one of his calling cards when he entered the bigs in 2014.

If Tanaka can shave that walk rate back down while continuing to suppress homers, he could prove to be one of the sneakiest ace assets in fantasy.