PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pirates reliever David Bednar back throwing the baseball just days after being placed on the injured list with a right oblique strain.
"Encouraging news over the past 48 to 72 hours," said Pirates Director of Sports Medicine Todd Tomczyk on Wednesday. "He is relatively pain free and asymptomatic. He did resume playing catch yesterday. Responded well from that. Off on Wednesday, will reassess on Thursday."
Tomczyk says an oblique injury is different between pitchers and position players. Each player responds in his own way. He wouldn't rule out anything for the rest of the season.
"It's very encouraging he is playing catch," Tomczyk said. "If it were up to David he'd be out there pitching again. We want both short and long-term goals for all of our players. What we don't want to do put him in a situation where he makes this injury worse. It piggybacks into his offseason and the first half of his offseason is rehabbing versus active recovery."
Steven Brault
Tomczyk said they will study Brault's mechanics and delivery. Look at his off-season conditioning program and 'peel back all of the layers' to try and find something that might help prevent him from another lat injury. He said Brault is not back to square one, just back to the drawing board.
Brault went on the 60-day injured list with a second lat injury this week.
"This is an area where he injured twice obviously," Tomczyk said. "It's encouraging that there is no re-tearing of that particular muscle. Lat injuries are complicated in their own nature. I think he proved to himself that he could get back to a high volume of pitching. Unfortunately it wasn't sustainable for the rest of this year."
JT Brubaker
Currently on the injured list with a shoulder issue. Brubaker has resumed throwing some light plyometric balls in the weight room against the wall. Tomczyk said he's responding well to that. Pirates will reassess over the weekend about a throwing program.
Brubaker left after his start September 4 after three innings and is 5-13 with a 5.36 ERA with 129 strikeouts and 38 walks in 124.1 innings.
Michael Chavis
The infielder acquired from the Red Sox will go on a rehab assignment to AAA Indianapolis in the coming days. Tomczyk said Chavis, elbow injury, will start only as a designated hitter. As the rehab assignment progresses, they will get him back into full game activity.
This year the AAA season mirrors the Major League season lasting until October 3.
Minor League arms
Brennan Malone-right lat injury. He has resumed playing catch and baseball activities. He will not return to game action, they are prepping him for his off-season throwing program. Malone only pitched in nine games this year.
Tahnaj Thomas is working through some things in Greensboro due to a 'general illness'. He is not currently on the active roster. Thomas last pitched September 5.
