Pittsburgh Pirates News: Chad Kuhl Timetable for Return

The Pittsburgh Pirates saw starting pitcher Chad Kuhl hit the disabled list at the end of June.  There is now a timetable for his return.

This season the Pittsburgh Pirates have seen a lot of inconsistency from their starting rotation.  However, that was somewhat expected from a young pitching staff.  One of those pitchers is Chad Kuhl.  Kuhl had a some really good starts and some really bad starts over the course of the first half of this season.  Unfortunately, Kuhl had to go on the disabled list at the end of June when he felt a tight pain in his throwing elbow.  Of course, the first fear when hearing this diagnoses is Tommy-John Surgery.  This surgery would put the hard throwing righty on the shelf for anywhere from 14-16 months.  That is assuming that he would have no set backs.

Well, according to Liz Bloom Kuhl will not be needing Tommy-John Surgery.  In fact, Bloom has reported that the Pittsburgh Pirates have set a timeline for when Kuhl will get back to throwing.  Bloom reports that Kuhl will not throw at all until at least August 8th, taking about four more weeks off.  From there, Kuhl will do flat ground work and see how his elbow reacts.  If that goes well, then Kuhl will likely go on a long rehab stint in the minors.  At this point, Chad Kuhl may not get back to pitching in major league games until September.  If that is the case, the team might be better off having him make a few starts in September then shutting him down for an early off season.

This is somewhat disappointing news.  Although Kuhl has shown some inconsistencies, he did not give up more than three runs in seven of his last eight starts.  So maybe he was starting to figure out how to be more effective at the big league level.  Still, the Pittsburgh Pirates had a more than suitable replacement in Nick Kingham.  Many have felt Kingham should have been in the rotation since his first stint early this season.  Kuhl’s injury has given an opportunity for Kingham to take a permanent spot in the rotation going forward.

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Still, getting Chad Kuhl back healthy will help this team. In fact, this arm issue could be finally what leads the team to put him in the bullpen.  This is a move that many writers and fans have called for over the last year or so.  Kuhl has a power fastball that can reach the high 90s and a very good hard slider.  Both pitches could allow him to be a really strong backend of the bullpen type arm.