At a time when he expected to be finishing the long road back from Tommy John elbow surgery, Braves reliever Shae Simmons has been stalled again by soreness in his pitching arm, this time in the shoulder.
Simmons had TJ surgery 16 months ago and the Braves had hoped to have the hard-throwing right-hander back in their bullpen by May or June. But he’s made five minor-league rehab appearances including no consecutive outings, and was scratched from a scheduled appearance Saturday.
Simmons was to have his sore shoulder examined early this week.
“He was supposed to pitch two days ago in (Double-A) Mississippi and didn’t make that one, so now they’re going to have him examined again,” Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said. “I don’t know if it’s elbow or shoulder. Just issues, uncomfortable or sore, so they just want to rule out anything more going on.”
Simmons was scratched from an appearance nearly two weeks ago for triceps soreness, and this latest ailment was believed to be in the same general area near or in the shoulder.
He’s allowed two hits and five walks with nine strikeouts in five scoreless innings in rehab games with Single-A Rome and Triple-A Gwinnett. All of the appearances were starts and lasted one inning, so as to control the conditions as much as possible.
Simmons hasn’t been able to make consecutive appearances yet because of discomfort. That’s one of the requirements before he’ll be activated.
“He hasn’t gotten through the rehab yet,” Snitker said. “He’s had some setbacks along the way and just health issues. Hasn’t been able to do back-to-back, and even when he’s had time off he’s had a hard time making his starts. So we’re just trying to make sure that he’s healthy so that he can finish the progression that we had for him.”
As a promising rookie in 2014, Simmons went on the disabled list July 29 with shoulder soreness and didn’t pitch again that season. Simmons made a big splash after first arriving in the majors on May 31, 2014. He converted a save in his second appearance and posted a 0.96 ERA and .172 opponents’ average in his first 20 games.
He allowed five runs, four hits and five walks in three innings over his last six appearances before going on the DL, and conceded at the time that he had pitched through shoulder pain for about a month without letting team officials know he was hurting. Simmons had 23 strikeouts in 21 2/3 innings that season.
He blew out his elbow during an informal workout in early February 2015 back at his college in Missouri, and has missed two spring trainings and nearly 1 ½ seasons.
