While Philadelphia Phillies' fans were discouraged by a rough start from Aaron Nola Sunday, they are likely to feel encouraged by Ryan Lawrence of Philly Voice's report that Nola's fellow young starter — Jerad Eickhoff, is close to making his Spring Training debut.
The 25-year-old right-hander threw around 40 pitches to catcher J.P. Arencibia and believes he’s on track to jump into the Phillies rotation this week.
“I’d probably say end of the week,” Eickhoff said. “We’re looking at one more bullpen session and see how it feels.”
Eickhoff is recovering from what he called a 'small' fracture on the thumb of his throwing hand, an injury that he says he sustained while taking batting practice.
Lawrence says that this is the second time in four days that Eickhoff has successfully thrown. While Eickhoff noted that he will throw one more session prior to returning to game action, there's little reason to think that he's going to have any issues in that session that would prevent him from pitching in a game later this week.
The Phillies will take on the Detroit Tigers on Thursday, the Atlanta Braves on Friday and the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday, so if Eickhoff's timeline stays on track, he's likely to pitch in one of those games.
Eickhoff, 25, went 3-3 with a 2.65 ERA in eight starts after the Phillies acquired him last July in the Cole Hamels trade with the Texas Rangers. Eickhoff was looked at as the fourth of fifth best player acquired in the deal at the time of the trade, with prospects Nick Williams, Jake Thompson and Jorge Alfaro considered the potential blue-chip players that came back in the deal.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is the Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com, focusing on news and features.
