Cherington Notes-Cruz rehab, bullpen thoughts, Skenes velo

PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pirates GM Ben Cherington had information on a few key injuries. He also talked about the potential of changing the bullpen. Here are highlights of what he said on the Pirates Insider Show on 93.7 The Fan Sunday before the homestand ended against the Reds.

Injuries

• 1B Spencer Horwitz is dealing with a Grade one to two hamstring injury and they are looking at weeks, not days for his return. They have to see how he responds to rehab before knowing timetable for a return
• OF Oneil Cruz is heading to Florida soon to ramp up his rehab from a hand/wrist injury. Cruz is reporting improvement and they are ramping up his progression. Likely he would return after the All-Star Break or by the end of July.
• RHP Wilber Dotel pitched an inning in his first rehab appearance, throwing at AA Altoona and wasn’t feeling ‘quite as good’ so they pulled a potential two-inning appearance to one inning. Dotel is back in Pittsburgh being evaluated.

No quick fix for the bullpen

For those looking for an imminent trade to improve the bullpen, Cherington said on the Pirates Insider Show on 93.7 The Fan with Jason Mackey, that’s not likely to occur.

“Trades are inevitably going to happen at some point, but we are two weeks from the draft and usually, and there is a good chance really, that nothing will pick up until after the draft,” Cherington said.

Cherington said the talent is there for internal improvement. They’ve dug deep into it, as Cherington put it ‘get under the hood’ and made sure they know the exact reason for failure—whether that’s bad luck at times, lack of execution or potentially that they need a different player.

“It’s the same stuff,” Cherington said generally on 93.7 The Fan. “I think urgency, we should have urgency. It goes back to what I said before, we each have our own job to do. I have my own job to do. The staff have their job. The pitchers have their job. The catchers have their job. The defenders have their job, every one of those people have some job to do to make sure this improves.”

Cherington said he hopes at some point they will ‘add guys to the team’, but said again it’s early.

A stat appeared on social media Saturday stating the Pirates would have the best record in Major League Baseball if games ended after seven innings. According to this report, the Bucs would be 55-27.

Paul Skenes velo

On the concerns that the velocity is down for NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes, Cherington said they do track the velocity over time. They are looking at recovery, and Skenes needs to self-report on any issue and they study biomechanical input to make sure they’ve covered every potential element.

“The most important thing is we aren’t getting anything from him that there is any physical issue,” Cherington said on the Pirates Insider Show with Jason Mackey on 93.7 The Fan. I think zooming out, my personal opinion is, this is fairly standard for starting pitchers over time, including elite ones. There are smaller stretches of time where there is some small regression that can be for any number of reasons and then three months later they feel different. It’s not uncommon.”

Next ace?

RHP Seth Hernandez has allowed one earned run in his last three games with Greensboro. Cherington said it’s exciting to see. He noted there was a little stretch where he got out of whack with his delivery, but he made a quick adjustment and they are working to keep him in a strong spot as he continues in High A.

“We got to remind ourselves that he is 12 months out from high school prom,” Cherington said on 93.7 The Fan. “This has happened really fast and we want to position him for a really long career. He’s off to a great start.

The 20-year-old is 6-1 with a 2.02 ERA, 62.1 innings, 8 HR allowed, 28 walks, 100 strikeouts, 0.99 WHIP, .159 batting average against.