SEATTLE — Mariners relief pitcher Shawn Kelley knew he had two choices when the pain returned last week to his right elbow.
He could have spoken up about it, knowing that such disclosure would delay his return from the disabled list even longer. Or he could have stayed quiet, pitched through the pain and hoped rest in the offseason would heal whatever had wounded him.
Wednesday, two days after he had pitched one inning of a rehab outing with Class AAA Tacoma, Kelley’s elbow continue to hurt and he realized he wasn’t dealing with typical day-after pain anymore.
So he spoke up about it, reluctantly.
“That was real tough,” he said. “I didn’t want to do it. I had hoped to keep pitching and get through the year and rest up in the offseason. But I talked to a couple of people and I realized the best thing is to say something and shut it down.”
Kelley had a magnetic resonance imaging exam on the elbow Friday but, possibly because of the residue from Tommy John ligament surgery seven years ago, doctors didn’t get a good image, he said. So he underwent a CAT scan hoping a closer look at the bone structure would show something. He hadn’t gotten the results of that by Saturday.
Kelley was supposed to pitch for the Everett AquaSox on Thursday, but after talking Wednesday with pitching coach Rick Adair and bullpen coach John Wetteland, he became convinced that undergoing more tests would be his best option.
“He’s been struggling with it for two months now. He knows that something is wrong,” Adair said. “For me, it’s just common sense to find out exactly what is going on. If you wait until the offseason to let it heal and then it flares up again next year and there is something wrong, you’ve wasted six or eight months.”
Bedard hopes to return next year
One day after surgery to remove a bone spurs from his left shoulder, Erik Bedard was looking forward to next year. Hopefully, with the Mariners, he said.
“If they want me back, yes, I would love to come back,” Bedard said Saturday.
Bedard said he was relieved to learn that it was the bone spur that caused discomfort and not a problem with the labrum, which was surgically repaired last August.
“They found what it was and it’s going to be an easy rehab compared to last year,” he said. “You don’t know if the labrum came back healed right, but everything looked good.”
Bedard was within days of returning to the Mariners’ rotation when he felt pain in the shoulder after a session in the bullpen on July 3.
“That’s the most disappointing part. You get pretty much at the end before you’re going to come back and it breaks down,” he said. “You put all that work in and it just didn’t work out in the end.”
The Mariners say Bedard should be a full strength when spring training begins next February. Whether he returns to the team, that will be determined in the offsesaon.
Bedard, who’s being paid $1.5 million this year, has an $8 million option for 2011 with a $250,000 team buyout.
Lunch date with the skipper
Manager Don Wakamatsu paid a debt Saturday that had been hanging over him since spring training. He hosted lunch in his office with a group of women who call themselves “The Old Bats.”
It was the product of some friendly gamesmanship at spring training in Peoria, Ariz., where the women kept a tally of how often they arrived at the Mariners’ complex before Wakamatsu did. The all agreed that if, by the end of spring training, the women arrived earlier more times than Wakamatsu, he would host them for lunch in the clubhouse.
They had to arrive ultra early because Wakamatsu pulled into the parking lot about 5:30 a.m. each day. They were there at 5:20.
Saturday, they all dined in his office at Safeco Field. And when it was over, the Bats handed Wakamatsu a small laminated note with “Paid in full” stamped in bright red letters.
“They’re great fans and we appreciate people like that so much,” Wakamatsu said.
Fairest of the fair
Saturday was a blue-ribbon day for the family of Mariners catching coordinator Roger Hansen, who lives in Stanwood. Everyone in the family — 9-year-old daughter Madison, 7-year-old daughter Rylie and wife Lynn — was a first-place winner for the eggs, flowers, painted rocks and bells they entered at the Stanwood Camano Community Fair. Rylie also won a special merit award for her peas.
And even Roger Hansen, the reputed rough and tough taskmaster of the Mariners’ young catchers, was a first-place winner although he tried to distance himself in fear of what he might hear about it in the clubhouse. He won for a flower that, he said, was entered in his name by the girls.
“I said, A flower? Great! Thanks guys,’” Hansen said.
Of note
Ryan Rowland-Smith’s first rehab outing with the Class AAA Tacoma Rainiers was a rough one. He allowed 11 hits and five runs in 52/3 innings Saturday night at Iowa. He struck out six and didn’t walk a batter. … Ryan Langerhans started a second straight game in left field because Michael Saunders remained sore after he crashed into the wall chasing a fly ball Thursday night. Wakamatsu said Saunders might miss a couple more days. … Josh Bard (stiff neck) was available to play Saturday and might start today. Adam Moore has started the past four games. “We’ll probably look to give Adam a day off either (today) or the next day,” Wakamatsu said.
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