Arrieta ready for ‘nice’ July start
He left the season grind early with an elbow problem that would require surgery.
He left his last start of spring training in March with a shoulder problem that he predicted wouldn’t be that much of one.
A few days into “summer training” in South Philadelphia, Jake Arrieta is more confident than ever that those recent injury setbacks are indeed things of the past.
The Phillies’ veteran Cy Young Award winner is yet again a key middle of the rotation cog for an uncertain starting rotation. At 34 and in the last of what had been a three-year, $75 million deal, he faces an uncertain future.
Yet for now, all seems right in Jake’s world, if only because he cruised through a 10-out assignment in the Phillies’ intra-squad game Saturday at Citizens Bank Park.
“Today was really nice,” Arrieta said. “Very efficient. Good with, predominantly, my sinkers early . ... Threw some great cutters, I was behind the ball, my balance over the rubber is something that I have to make sure I sustain.
“All that was really nice today.” It was some positive news after a stretch of non-success for Arrieta, who valiantly tried pitching for months last season through elbow pain. But he arrived at Clearwater last spring confident that his offseason rehab had put him in a position for a noteworthy comeback.
Then all coronavirus happened. But while enjoying time with his family at their Austin, Texas home for a few months, Arrieta also kept up a throwing regimen that has him seeing positive results.
“I’ve been throwing four to six days a week, because of the unknown; just trying to stay ready as best we can,” Arrieta said. “I didn’t want to be caught off guard when the phone call came that we were going to report. So I just tried to stay ready and I’m in a good place.”
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Arrieta’s current stream of confidence extends beyond how he’s feeling and performing.
“I don’t see any reason why we won’t be able to execute a full (60game)
season,” he said. “Travel will present a new set of challenges for us, but the protocols and safety guidelines we’ve been following since we’ve been in Philadelphia have been pretty strict, and for good reason. Our testing protocol seems to be very effective. We’ve obviously had our cases with COVID-19 ... but we had Scotty (Kingery) back today, and I think we’ll have another (player) back in the next few days.
“We have to take it upon ourselves to be as safe as we can, especially when we’re away from the field. But I feel like the organization has done a really good job of maintaining the safety of all of our players, our staff and everybody surrounding the team. If we continue that protocol and limit our interactions with people away from the field I don’t see why we can’t successfully play the 2020 season.”
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Kingery admitted his experience with the virus sparked a brief period of scary uncertainty.
“At first I got the headaches and tried to just play it off like it was nothing but a headache and nothing too big,” Kingery said. “Then when the chills came I was just like, ‘All right, I don’t know if this is going to keep progressing into something worse, or I don’t know if this is the peak of the sickness.’ I hadn’t really seen people I was with, so I didn’t know what it was going to be like. So in my mind I was thinking, ‘Does it get worse than this or am I going to just feel like this for one day?’
“Thankfully I did only feel like that for a day or two days. But at the time I had no idea what was coming next.”
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NOTES » Manager Joe Girardi gave Arrieta two thumbs up for his pitching stint Saturday. Not so much Nick Pivetta. “His first inning was good. His third inning was good,” Girardi said of Pivetta. “His second inning he struggled. He didn’t really have his curveball today. This is the first time these guys are seeing hitters (since camp started), so you’re going to see some of that.” ... Pivetta is at least ahead of fellow lower rotation hopeful Zach Eflin, who Girardi said is sidelined for a time by muscle spasms in his back. “He’s just kind of day to day,” Girardi said. “He got some back spasms working out and we don’t expect him (to be out) too long. We hope not.”