It's been 22 days since Stephen Strasburg last pitched for the Nationals, and 20 days since he was placed on the 10-day Injured List (retroactive to April 15) with right shoulder inflammation. So the simple question is: When can fans expect Strasburg to return?
Nationals GM Mike Rizzo was reluctant to give a timeline during his weekly 106.7 The Fan appearance with The Sports Junkies on Wednesday, but did offer this update.
"Timeline's are tough but he's progressing nicely," Rizzo said. "He's been on the mound throwing bullpens and that always means that he's getting closer. He's got another scheduled bullpen tomorrow. We'll evaluate him after that. We'll see where he's gonna be at the day after he gets done throwing."
Back on April 21, Rizzo informed Junkies listeners that "as long as he doesn't pitch is how long it's gonna take when he comes back to pitch in the big leagues." With that in mind, it sounds like a positive development that Strasburg is at least throwing bullpen sessions.
"We see him as a guy that's gonna help us in the near future," Rizzo said Wednesday. "He's a guy we need and we want and makes our pitching elite."
"With the way the rest of the rotation is going," he said, "we feel really good about our rotation and our depth, and some of our young pitchers to go along with our veteran guys. We like where we're at. As far as the depth of our starting pitching, it's as good as anybody's around."
"So you don't feel like you have to rush him back, is kind of what you're saying," Junkies host Eric Bickel inferred.
"No, we would never rush anybody back," Rizzo said. "It's not the time of the season for that. We're going to take him at his normal pace like we would rehab anybody with the type of injury he had. The fact that he's throwing bullpens and throwing off the mound already is a good sign for him."
