Mariners notebook: James Paxton’s fingernail passes initial tests
Sep 4, 2016, 2:15 PM | Updated: 3:09 pm
James Paxton put the acrylic nail on his left middle finger to the test this week, throwing a bullpen Saturday and playing catch Sunday, and it appears to have held up. He is on schedule to make his Tuesday start. With that said, there is concern that this was a recurrence of a previous injury.
“This is the same thing that got him last year,” general manager Jerry Dipoto said on the Sunday Magazine Show. “When I was here in September and saw James’ finger I thought, ‘Oooh, that’s kind of ugly.’ We saw that again in Texas. You could see him looking down in the first inning. I don’t know what that is, why it keeps bothering him. I don’t think we can predict when or if it is going to affect him, we just have to take it day by day.”
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Paxton originally tore the nail in a rehab start (strained tendon in left middle finger) against Salt Lake City on Sept. 2, 2015. The tear was not severe and he was able to return to the Mariners and start Sept. 13. Eleven days later, in a start against the Royals, the nail completely tore away from the nail bed, ending Paxton’s season. The nail healed enough for him to pitch in the Arizona Fall League but he was limited to throwing fastballs and changeups to keep the stress of breaking balls off the finger. When he reported to spring training, the nail looked normal and, obviously, it held up for the majority of the season.
“James had been throwing the ball so well prior to getting hit on the elbow last month,” Dipoto said. “Now with the pitching staff as topsy-turvy as it has been, you would really like to be able to rely on that every fifth (starter) day, just to be able to rely on James to take it deep into a game. We are just going to have to take it day by day.”
Notes:
• Prior to the game Sunday, the Mariners recalled David Rollins from Triple-A Tacoma and activated Drew Storen from the 15-day DL.
• Tom Wilhelmsen is eligible to come off the DL on Sept. 9. He has been throwing and is eager to get back on the diamond. The Mariners are 1-5 since Wilhelmsen went on the DL and 3-8 with Storen out. While pointing to the starting pitching as being the biggest factor in the Mariners recent struggles, manager Scott Servais also acknowledged that Wilhelmsen and Storen provided much-needed stability in the pen.
“They were pitching very well,” Servais said. ” Tom and Drew were helping get us out of jams. When there was traffic on the bases, they were coming in to deal with that.”
• Leonys Martin, Ketel Marte, Ben Gamel, Guillermo Heredia and Shawn O’Malley participated in bunting practice before the game. Not a bad representation of speed for a team that has not had much for the majority of the season. Very little is written in ink at this point, but this group could give you a very different look on offense next season.
• Ambidextrous reliever Pat Venditte gave the Mariners 4 1/3 innings of work in relief Saturday. It was a slightly curious sight to see him pitch left handed to a number of Anaheim’s righties. Turns out that move was all about pitch count.
“Because it was such a right-handed lineup and (we) asked him to soak up innings in a bad game, 28 of his first 37 pitches were thrown right-handed, so in order to try to extract a little length to him, he just started throwing left-handed to the right-handed hitters,” Dipoto said. “Anyone who had anything close to a normal split, he just threw left-handed so he could get through a little extra time.”
