BALTIMORE — With the Orioles about to embark on their longest road trip of the season so far, Yovani Gallardo will take another important step in his recovery from right shoulder tendinitis in Anaheim.
The veteran starting pitcher has responded well since beginning a throwing program over the weekend and is scheduled to complete his first bullpen session on Sunday. If that goes well, he’ll have another bullpen session on Tuesday with the plan of pitching a simulated game on May 27.
Orioles manager Buck Showalter said it’s possible that Gallardo would then be ready to begin a minor-league rehab assignment and probably wouldn’t need more than one or two rehab starts before potentially being activated.
“They’re all parts of the process,” Showalter said. “His arm swing and the backspin on the ball, he’s doing some things he couldn’t do before. I’m encouraged about this if we can stay on this schedule.”
The 30-year-old has been on the 15-day disabled list since April 23 after experiencing right shoulder discomfort in Kansas City a night earlier. It was the first time in his major league career that Gallardo was sent to the DL for an arm injury.
In his four starts covering 18 innings at the beginning of the season, Gallardo posted a 7.00 ERA with nine strikeouts and seven walks and was averaging a career-low 88.3 miles per hour on his fastball, down 2.2 mph from his 2015 average. He signed a two-year, $22 million contract in late February after the initial three-year, $35 million agreement was restructured due to the organization’s concerns about the health of his shoulder when he took his physical.
Showalter also said that pitching prospect Hunter Harvey will begin a throwing program on May 24 as he continues to recover from sports hernia surgery.
