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Despite suffering an oblique injury during his last spring appearance last Saturday, Zach Davies said he wasn’t too concerned and planned to push himself in bullpen sessions to see how his sore side would respond.
Despite Davies’ (and the Brewers’) assurances that he was mostly fine, that still caused some worry that totally cutting loose in bullpens would further aggravate the injury and we’d see a situation similar to last year, when Chase Anderson missed seven weeks with the injury.
Davies said yesterday he wasn’t worrying about that possibility:
“I’m progressing really well. I don’t feel it anymore. It’s not hindering a regular throwing program day for me. I’m not going to be one of those guys who’s going to be reserved about it. I want to know what it is. I’m not going to give it a few more days being reserved and then having a setback from there. I’d rather test it out now and make sure it’s ready to go.”
The big test came with Davies’ bullpen session today, and Davies told reporters there were no setbacks:
Zach Davies says his bullpen went great and he’ll slot back into action Monday, possibly in a camp game on the Minor League side. No issues with his oblique, Davies said.
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) March 9, 2018
Davies said he next will throw simulated game on back field, then return to Cactus League action.
— Tom (@Haudricourt) March 9, 2018
Yesterday, Davies told Todd Rosiak his decision to treat the injury right away probably played a role in his quick recovery and only missing one turn in the rotation:
“I’m feeling really good. It was something that I could feel on Saturday and I knew that it wasn’t just a cramp or anything, so I made sure to get some treatment on Sunday. It was better than it was the day before, so I knew that it was progressing.
”I just jumped on top of it, because you know how those injuries can kind of snowball. You saw how much time Chase (Anderson) missed last year, and I don’t want to be in that same boat.”
It may still be some time before we see Davies in a major league spring game if he does pitch on the minor league side next week, but at least it appears he’s still on schedule to appear during the season-opening series in San Diego with no restrictions.
Everyone exhale.