BRADENTON – The Pirates are close to getting three of their top prospects back from injuries. Austin Meadows, Cole Tucker, and Stephen Tarpley are rehabbing at Pirate City, and all three are close to a return.
Austin Meadows has been rehabbing from orbital surgery on his right eye, after getting hit in the face with a ball that deflected off a teammate’s glove. He had a follow-up appointment last week to check on his eye, and said that everything checked out 100% with no problems. He played seven innings on Tuesday, and will play back to back nine inning games tomorrow and Friday.
The back to back game schedule is usually the last step before a player is ready to finish his rehab. That’s the plan for Meadows, assuming no setbacks. So it looks like he would be joining Altoona next week.
“Hopefully I’ll get out of here sometime next week,” Meadows said. “I’m not sure when, but hopefully next week sometime.”
Meadows hasn’t had any limitations with his buildup, although he has been wearing a protective face guard on his helmet, and protective clear glasses at the plate. Other than that, he said that everything is going well on the field.
“I’m starting to get back into the rhythm of things,” Meadows said. “It just takes a lot of reps in the cages, but I’m starting to get back into game mode for sure.”
Here is Meadows drawing a walk in yesterday’s game:
Austin Meadows draws a walk in extended Spring Training. #Pirates
A video posted by Pirates Prospects (@piratesprospects) on
Cole Tucker is also looking closer to a return, playing seven innings on Tuesday, and playing back to back nine inning games tomorrow and Friday. His situation is a bit different, since he’s returning from labrum surgery, which is a bigger rehab than what Meadows was going through. Tucker wasn’t sure if he was joining a full-season team next week.
“That’s all up to them,” Tucker said. “I’m getting to the point where I can play nine innings, so I guess that’s coming soon.”
I saw him yesterday, and he looked good, playing with no restrictions (which has been the case for a few weeks), and running full force on the base paths, with two runs scored on aggressive running and slides on close plays at the plate. The more important thing here is his throwing and hitting from the left side, and there have been no issues there.
“Throwing is good, hitting is good,” Tucker said. “I’m feeling strong, feeling fast. Running all over the place. Hitting the ball well. Everything is good.”
It’s not known whether Tucker will go to Bradenton or West Virginia. My guess is that he would go to West Virginia first, since there is more playing time available at shortstop at that level. Bradenton has Kevin Newman at shortstop, and he’s hitting everything right now. I spoke to Larry Broadway at the start of the season, and he said that the plan was to eventually get Newman to Altoona, and Tucker to Bradenton. Tucker repeated today that he’s been told he’ll go to Bradenton eventually, but doesn’t know when that would be.
If Tucker does return next week, and goes to West Virginia, I’ll have live coverage, since I’ll be in Charleston from Tuesday through Sunday.
Stephen Tarpley went three innings today in a rehab start, throwing exactly 50 pitches, and sitting 92-94 MPH with his fastball, touching 95 twice. He also mixed in some nice sliders, which is a pitch he has been developing as an out pitch in the last year, in addition to his fastball/changeup combo.
The plan for Tarpley is to extend to four innings on Monday, and five innings next Saturday (April 30th). After that, he would join the Bradenton rotation the following week. Tarpley was set back during Spring Training with an oblique injury, and is now going through the normal Spring Training buildup, with no issues with his side.
Here was Tarpley battling from behind to strike out a batter today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sY01q1Sxt0
Other Injury Updates
** Jacob Taylor, drafted in the fourth round last year, went down after one inning in the GCL with Tommy John surgery. The right-hander could hit 97 MPH with his fastball at a young age, making him a promising prospect. He’s 9-10 months into his rehab now, and just finished a two week break. He will start back up soon, and will begin throwing bullpen sessions for the first time in two weeks, going the usual two day per week schedule.
“Everything feels great right now,” Taylor said. “I’m just hoping it stays that way.”
Because the surgery happened at the end of the year, Taylor might not get back into games by the end of the season. If that’s the case, he will get innings during the Fall Instructional League.
**Wyatt Mathisen is returning from shoulder soreness, which sidelined him at the end of Spring Training. Mathisen had labrum issues in the past, so the Pirates decided to be cautious when his shoulder had issues again.
“We were cautious during Spring Training,” Mathisen said. “It was feeling a little tight, a little tender. So we gave it a break, and now it’s back to feeling normal.”
Mathisen threw from 120 feet today. He has also been taking batting practice in live BPs and off machines this week. Next week, he will get some at-bats in games as the DH. He’s not sure when he’ll start playing games on the field at third base, but once that happens, he will start getting built up for the season.
It’s unknown where Mathisen will start the season. He’s hoping for Altoona, but said that he might go somewhere else to get built up. Bradenton currently has Connor Joe at third base, along with Jordan Luplow as an option. Altoona has more of an opening, but Mathisen would be competing with Eric Wood and Edwin Espinal for playing time.
** Rinku Singh has missed the last three years with various elbow problems. He had Tommy John, which put him out for the 2013 season. He returned for rehab in 2014, but was feeling more pain, and had another surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow. That put him out for the 2014 season. Then, when building back up that off-season, he broke his elbow after getting up to throwing from 120 feet.
Singh is throwing now, but the Pirates are taking his build up slow. He threw a bullpen on Tuesday, and will throw another one on Friday. He’s getting close to throwing live batting practice and sim games.
“I had a pretty bad history of my elbow, going through three surgeries,” Singh said. “They’re taking it easy to make sure it doesn’t have any setbacks again. So we’re taking it day by day.”
Singh said that his elbow feels better now, which wasn’t the case after previous surgeries.
“It feels better than it ever had before. I guess going through rehab three years in a row, it made me to really understand the process of what should I do, what’s right. These days it’s feeling really good, and I hope it stays like that.”
Singh will eventually go to Bradenton and pitch out of their bullpen. He’s not really a prospect, throwing in the mid-80s and relying on good breaking stuff to get lower level guys out. However, he’s a good story, and should finally return this year.
