The Pirates have placed David Bednar on the 15-day injured list with a strained left oblique muscle and recalled Justin Bruihl from Class AAA Indianapolis. Bednar's move to the IL is retroactive to June 20.
Derek Shelton confirmed Saturday that Bednar was unavailable against the Rays after feeling some tightness in his left side during his throwing program. Ben Cherington, while speaking on his weekly radio show on 93.7 The Fan, said Bednar initially felt something in his left side after pitching in Wednesday's game against the Reds.
"We were hopeful that it was something that was minor enough, and we do believe it's minor, but we were hopeful it was something minor enough where we could avoid an IL (stint)," Cherington said. "We were trying to give ourselves a couple of days Friday and Saturday to get through it. Gave it another test this morning, he went out and threw. We believe it's a minor thing, but it's just not quite good enough to take the risk of putting him in a game. Obviously, he's really important to us and we need him for the biggest part of the season."
In Bednar's absence, Cherington said he thinks it will be a little bit of an "all hands on deck" situation in terms of the bullpen's usage in the later innings.
"Shelty will have some different options. Certainly anticipate that (Colin) Holderman and (Aroldis) Chapman will be used late in the game," Cherington said. "Both of those guys are both certainly used to it in having pitched in those moments a lot in their careers. In Chapman's case, he's been in the ninth inning a lot, but Holderman is having a spectacular season and is obviously well equipped to pitch in the eighth or ninth, so you could see a little bit of both. I think we'll need all hands on deck in the bullpen here."
• A day after he threw 63 pitches through five innings during a rehab start at Class AAA Indianapolis, Martin Perez (groin) is inching closer to a return to the Pirates' starting rotation. Cherington said there is a chance Perez makes his next start with the Pirates, but that hasn't been determined yet. He will rejoin the team for the upcoming road trip.
"We'll get with him in person, make sure everything is checking out and then make that call," Cherington said. "I think, in terms of what we wanted to see him do and what he wanted to feel himself by doing that one outing in Triple-A, it seems like that box was checked last night. Now it's just a matter of making sure he's physically in a good spot coming off that outing. Get with our staff when we get to Cincinnati and then make that call."
• Marco Gonzales (forearm muscle strain) is also inching closer to a rehab assignment in the minor leagues. He's already thrown a live BP and Cherington said the Pirates expect he'll probably take part in another live BP session sometime this week.
"If that one goes well, we'll check it out after and then perhaps think about a rehab assignment after that," Cherington said. "Given that he's missed more time than Perez and also that his issue was related to an arm and not a groin, would anticipate that the rehab progression with Marco is going to take a little bit longer than it will with Martin."
• A rehab assignment for Ryan Borucki (triceps inflammation) is being considered in the short term.
"He and Marco have been tracking almost identically in their schedules so far and I think we're probably at a point now where those schedules will start to diverge, and that's simply because Ryan is a reliever and Marco is a starter," Cherington said. "As he gets into that, just because he won't have to build a pitch count up quite as much as Marco does, we should be able to move along a little bit faster. That said, he's missed a lot of time and we want to make sure Ryan's getting the reps he needs in games to feel like a pitcher again."
• Cherington said Henry Davis (concussion) is also going to eventually head out on a rehab assignment before a determination is made regarding the next step in his recovery process.
"Obviously, given the concussion, there's a protocol he has to pass through before we can formally start a rehab assignment, but he's seemingly getting closer to that," Cherington added.
