Cobb moved to 60-day IL, could return at end of May
Alex Cobb knew an early May return to the rotation of the San Francisco Giants, coming back from offseason hip surgery, would be ambitious. That didn’t stop the disappointment from setting in when a flexor tendon strain and shoulder irritation delayed those plans and forced him to the 60day injured list, retroactive to March 25.
“I definitely worked really hard in the offseason to be back by now and it didn’t work out, so there’s some disappointment,” Cobb said. “In the overall view of the situation, we set those expectations early and there’s a negative aspect to it now. But I had surgery on Oct. 31, and if you told me I’d be on this path, I’d be very happy. The overall perspective is a very happy one.”
Cobb will be eligible to come off the injured list May 27, which gives the 36-year-old starter space to pace his rehab. Gone is the pressure to beat the odds.
“It’s like you’re not allowed to come back,” Cobb said. “There has always been this ‘one day earlier, one day earlier’ mindset and now you can’t.”
Cobb was initially projected to return sometime midseason but whizzed through his spring training injury rehabilitation work, pitching up to four innings in simulated games in Arizona. In early April, Cobb was anticipating a minor-league rehab assignment in San Jose until he experienced discomfort in his throwing elbow and was shut down.
Mild shoulder irritation surfaced earlier this week, which pushed Cobb’s return further down the line. On Saturday night the Giants traded cash for right-handed pitcher Mitch White, recently designated for assignment by the Toronto Blue Jays, and moved Cobb to the 60-day IL to open up a spot for White on the 40-man roster.
White is a Bay Area native, an alum of Bellarmine College Prep and Santa Clara University. Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi was in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ front office when the organization drafted White in the second round of the 2016 MLB draft.
White has big-league experience both as a starter and reliever and is expected to join the bullpen when he arrives Monday. The 29-year-old made four appearances out of the bullpen for the Blue Jays this season, including an outing of 41⁄3 innings on April 6. A corresponding move to add him to the active roster has yet to be determined.
Manager Bob Melvin said a May 27 return for Cobb isn’t out of the realm of possibility, but that moving him to the 60-day IL was a no-brainer.
“There was a time when we weren’t going to do that,” Melvin said. “But here recently with a slowing down (in his rehab), that made it easier to do.”
Cobb said his shoulder “feels better and better” every day and that he’s been throwing from 90 feet.
“A lot of it is normal spring training, going through and obviously we ramped it up pretty quickly and the body is going to respond the way it responds,” he said. “I’m very happy with the progress that’s been made in the last week and a half or so. Now I can sit back and really have a good map of what it’s going to look like in the future. The shoulder, I can feel something going on. But now I don’t have to push through it.”