SEATTLE — Injured Seattle Mariners setup reliever Joaquin Benoit is tracking for a return next week to active duty, while lefty Charlie Furbush is nearly ready to head to Arizona for the next step in his rehab process.
Both reported no day-after problems following bullpen workouts prior to Monday’s game. Right-hander Tony Zych, another injured reliever, hopes to begin flat-ground throwing by the weekend.
Benoit, 38, hasn’t pitched since April 21 because of shoulder inflammation. He is slotted for another bullpen workout prior to Wednesday’s series finale against Tampa Bay.
“If that goes well,” manager Scott Servais said, “then later in the week or the weekend, we’ll set up a sim(ulated) game or something like that with some hitters in there and see where go from there.”
Furbush, 30, underwent blood-injection therapy last month after opening the season on the disabled list because of lingering day-after tightness in his recovery from biceps tendinitis and a slight tear in his rotator cuff.
Plans call for Furbush to throw at least one more bullpen workout, perhaps as soon as Wednesday, before heading to the club’s year-round complex in Peoria, Ariz.
“He needs to go through an entire spring training,” Servais said. “He’ll probably go down to Arizona and get it cranked up down there.”
Zych, 25, hasn’t pitched since May 1 because of tendinitis in his rotator cuff. He said he no longer experiences soreness with any movement involving his shoulder.
“Before, I felt something every time I moved my shoulder,” he said. “The inflammation was just built up in there. Now I can move it with no problem.”
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