WASHINGTON — The Pirates are seeing steady and constant improvement in the rehab process for injured infielder Josh Harrison as he continues to work his way back from breaking a bone in his left hand — for the second time in less than a year —after being hit by a pitch.
Harrison, the Pirates’ starting second baseman and leadoff batter, was placed on the disabled list April 16, a day after being hit in the hand by a 96 mile per hour fastball from Miami’s José Ureña. It continued a troubling trend for Harrison, who was hit by a career-high 23 pitches last season, the last one a fastball from Cincinnati’s Tyler Mahle that broke the same bone last Sept. 2 and ended his season.
But Harrison, who is with the Pirates on their current road trip that started this week in Washington, has begun taking ground balls with the injured hand and doing other baseball-type activities as he continues to push his recovery, which was expected to take six weeks.
“He’s on the field, fielding ground balls, he’s watching bullpens, he’s running bases and conditioning and keeping the body strong,” Todd Tomczyk, the Pirates’ director of sports medicine, said Wednesday. “We’ll continue to progress with gripping activities this week.”
I asked when that also might include swinging a bat again, which would be the next step in the process for the Pirates’ all-star infielder.
“This week is a big week for him as he continues to progress through his gripping,” Tomczyk said. “Again, he’s only three-plus weeks out. So, he’s getting there. After that, Josh will need to swing with velocity, swing from coach’s pitch. There’s some steps he still needs to take. He continues to push our staff and continues to push through this injury to try and get back as quickly as possible.”
Tomczyk also had some positive news on injured pitchers A.J. Schugel and Joe Musgrove.
Schugel, who was very effective out of the team’s bullpen last season, made back-to-back appearances in Class AAA Indianapolis on April 29 and 30, the first time he’s done that as he continues to rehab a right shoulder injury.
Schugel, 28, is continuing on his rehab pace at Indianapolis and the Pirates are monitoring his progress closely as he works his way back. Schugel posted a 1.97 ERA in 32 innings out of the bullpen in 2017 for the Pirates.
“He’s in full-rehab mode, but as part of the rehab outline, we’d like to see him used out of the Indianapolis bullpen how the manager sees fit,” Tomczyk said. “If it comes in the middle of an inning, he doesn’t necessarily have to have a clean inning. It can come in the middle of an inning, an at-bat. He can go multiple innings or back-to-back.”
Musgrove, one of the players acquired from Houston in the trade of Gerrit Cole, made his first rehab start for Class A Bradenton Tuesday night, throwing 36 pitches in three innings and then tossing another 15 in the bullpen.
Clint Hurdle said Musgrove is scheduled to make his next rehab start Sunday in Altoona, when he is slated to throw four innings and/or 65 pitches. The goal is to continue to build up Musgrove’s arm strength after he experienced some shoulder soreness, which landed him on the disabled list just prior to making his first scheduled start this season in Cincinnati April 5.
“He felt fine. His velocity was firm. He threw his cutter, slider, change-up. It was a good first step,” Hurdle said of Musgrove. “We’ll give him a few more starts before we need to fit him into our pitching staff. He needs to pitch and rebuild up his arm strength. He’s going to start for us, barring any setbacks, when he’s ready. We’re going to gear him up and he’s going to need to get to six (innings) and 100 (pitches). Then he can get plugged back into the rotation.”
That could spur the pitchers already in the rotation to pick up their game or face heading to the bullpen — or down to the minors. The Pirates have already made one such move. Lefty Steven Brault will have his start in Milwaukee Friday taken by rookie Nick Kingham, who took a perfect game into the seventh inning in a spot start last Sunday.
“It can,” Hurdle said when I asked him if bringing a starting pitcher back can spur on the rest of the rotation. “There’s nothing wrong with saying, ‘Pitch better.’ All winter, we were talking about putting him in the rotation. He’s a guy we believe, through our scouts watching him pitch, through his history, to make this move. He has a desire to also take upon this challenge and responsibility that goes with a starting spot.
“You need five. Sometimes you need more. Sometimes these things take care of themselves as he’s finding his way back. Somebody else doesn’t pitch well enough to stay in the rotation or something else with a performance physically, they have a way of working themselves out. When that doesn’t happen, you need to make a hard decision.”
The Pirates also could have a hard decision to make in a month or so regarding the status of Jung Ho Kang, who was granted a visa to return to the United States last week and is now in Bradenton working out.
Tomczyk said the plan is to have Kang, who has not played in the majors in over a year after being declined entry into the country following three DUIs in his native South Korea, go through an entire spring training process.
“All indications are that he’s on the field. He’s playing catch. He’s conditioning and he’s going to need to have a buildup until he’s ready to compete with the rest of our guys who had a spring training,” Tomczyk said.
Kang had been the Pirates’ starting third baseman. But the Pirates signed veteran David Freese in 2016 and have since added third baseman Colin Moran as part of the deal for Cole.
