Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington met with reporters prior to Sunday afternoon’s game against the Washington Nationals and tackled topics ranging from injury updates, trade deadline conversation and some of the players on the major league roster.
On Gorkys Hernandez: “Gorkys has gone out and played a couple of games with [Triple-A] Indianapolis and looks healthy. Our anticipation is if he continues this way we’ll activate him and have to make a decision.”
Regarding Rob Scahill: “Working through the throwing progression and feeling better. With a pitcher it takes a lot longer for them to get stretched back out. We’re making great progress but still a ways away from game activity.”
Concerning the Trade deadline: “As we get closer to the deadline there are more teams that tend to realize that maybe the math is working against them, the math is not working for them or that the math is working for them. We’re experiencing that and we’d like to add to this club. We shored up what we felt was out biggest soft spot but that doesn’t mean we’re done.”
A.J. Burnett and improvements for the second half of the season: “It wasn’t like A.J. was throwing 97 and just blowing away. He was commanding and mixing his pitches really well. He had a remarkable first half but we expect him to go out and give us a legitimate chance to win every time he gets the baseball.”
Casey Sadler injury update: “Casey’s scuffling a little bit and still trying to work through the soreness and discomfort. He has good days and bad days unfortunately probably more bad than good right now. We’re in the process of getting him a second opinion and try to give him and us some clarity as to what is going on.”
Jameson Taillon latest: “Jameson is in the rest period right now. You can’t do a whole lot when you have hernia surgery. I had one when I was six and you can’t do a whole lot for a while.”
Lambo’s setback: “He has had a setback in his plantar fasciitis. He’s gotten an injection and leads to about a three-week shut down and then we will ramp him back up and get him back going. He was progressing well and came in with similar pain with the first time we shut him down.”
Alen Hanson progression: “The original plan was to let Alen settle in at second this year and let him play one position and let him bounce between short and second for pregame work. There was going to be a point where we would bounce him to third and introduce third base to him. We want to give him as many options to break into the major leagues as possible. With Jordy and Josh going down we sped that time frame up a little. He’s swung the bat and done a nice job offensively and introduced third to him earlier than we initially planned on.”
Josh Harrison: “The upside of a hand or a thumb injury is that you can keep the hands going and in Josh’s case we can keep the arm going. You can keep the opposite arm going and tracking going. It’s easier to come back and Josh is making great progress. If I could bet on the under in terms of return on two guys I’m going to take the under on Jordy Mercer and Josh Harrison. At the same time there is a realistic time frame and we’re going to do everything in our power to put them in a position to be successful and not put them in harm’s way but rushing them.”
Of note: There is one open 40-man roster spot. Steve Lombardozzi was designated for assignment and Brent Morel was as well. Justin Sellers is not on the 40-man. He was placed on outright waivers and outrighted without technically having to put him back
Photo credit: Gene J. Puskar/AP Photo
