Despite shoulder injury, Ryu likely to return to mound in late April

Despite shoulder injury, Ryu likely to return to mound in late April. March. 26, 2015 07:31. jaj@donga.com.

Pain in his left shoulder is causing a setback in pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin’s performance. MRI images showed no signs of abnormal conditions, but Ryu is set to find his name in the Disabled List at a time when the 2015 season opens. As a result, his goal to play in more than 200 innings in this season, the third year since his Major League debut, has become unattainable.

Dodgers President Andrew Friedman said in an interview with the Major League website (MLB.COM) on Tuesday that (Ryu Hyun-jin’s situation) is not as serious as worried and his MRI images showed that his shoulder is in a condition similar to the situation when he joined the team in 2012.

He felt pain in his shoulder after throwing 46 pitches during three innings at an exhibition game against the Texas Rangers on Tuesday last week, and got anti-inflammatory injection. Three days later, he felt pain again during training and received close medical inspection. Friedman said that he should take a two-week rest in a preventive measure before checking the condition again, but refrained from mentioning the timing of his return.

Last year, Ryu made the Disabled List for about three weeks in April due to pain in his left shoulder. In September, or the final days of the regular season, he was also excluded from the rotation of starting pitchers for three weeks, and ended up pitching only in 152 innings.

According to local media in the U.S., Ryu is expected to take the mound again around late April. This is because it takes time before he regains sensibility for actual games, even if he recovers condition to be able to pitch two weeks from now. The Los Angeles Times reported that if Ryu’s absence gets extended for more than a month, Joe Wieland will replace Ryu.

Meanwhile, Kang Jung-ho at the Pittsburgh Pirates started as eighth hitter and second baseman at an exhibition game against the Baltimore Orioles on the day, and had no hits in four times at bat, including two strikeouts. Kang saw his batting average fall to 0.111, as he has failed to have even a single hit in five consecutive games since the game against Boston on March 13.