Pineiro delayed, return uncertain
JUPITER, Fla. — The Cardinals sent ailing righthander Joel Pineiro for a magnetic resonance imaging scan and the results showed no structural damage to his right shoulder. That answers one question for the Cardinals, but doesn’t put Pineiro back on the mound.
The Cardinals have taken Pineiro out of his scheduled start and do not know when he’ll next pitch, manager Tony La Russa said this morning. Anthony Reyes will start in Pineiro’s place Wednesday.
They will continue to explore reasons and treatments for the recurring tightness in Pineiro’s shoulder.
“We’re optimistic again,” La Russa said after telling reports the results of the MRI. “We’ll see when he’s ready to throw.”
Twice this spring Pineiro has stopped in the middle of a bullpen or warmup, telling coaches or trainers that he could not get his shoulder loose. Pineiro was put on a more intense stretching program after his first stopped session, one he said he’ll continue through the season to keep the joint fluid. As reported by The Post-Dispatch in this morning’s paper, Pineiro cut short his scheduled bullpen Sunday, explaining he had the same tight sensation in his arm.
His absence leaves the Cardinals catch-as-catch-can rotation in even more flux.
Mike Parisi, Kyle McClellan and Clayton Mortensen are all minor league pitchers who have made a 1 o’clock start this spring. Parisi will throw today in a scrimmage opposite Brad Thompson, and Mortensen will probably stay on turn, following up his start Sunday with an assignment Friday (Reyes’ normal day).
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The Cardinals made three moves this morning, optioning RHP Blake Hawksworth and RHP Mark Worrell to minor-league camp and reassigning non-roster invitee RHP John Wasdin. Three members of the Cardinals’ 40-man roster have not been optioned: Worrell, Hawksworth and INF Brian Barden.
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it seems to me that the golden rule of baseball is that you can never have enough pitching. i really don’t understand why the cards did not sign some of the free agent pitchers in the off season. if for no other reason that they seem like a good investment. they could have helped until the return of our injured starters and then been dealt at the trade deadline for some good young prospects. this would have helped restock the farm system. i just could not figure how the cards felt these pitchers: livan hernandez, lohse, weaver, and several others that had no injury history and could eat innings were overvalued. i don’t mean signing to long term contracts. just one or possibly two years. but other teams signed them to small contracts.
i wonder if parisi, mcclellan, etc. will be ready to step up this year. it’s looking like they’ll have to.