Injury sets back Pirates ace Gerrit Cole at spring training
Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Gerrit Cole has experienced a setback to begin 2016.
The club announced on Friday that Cole has been dealing with inflammation in a rib on the right side of his body.
The injury, which he sustained in mid-January, has kept him off the mound in the early stages of spring training and has limited him to throwing only off of flat ground.
"It just got to a point where we needed to take a step back in order to come here and have both feet on the ground and move forward," Cole told reporters, via MLB.com. "I'm not too far behind everybody else, but I feel good."
Pirates head athletic trainer Todd Tomczyk revealed that Cole is scheduled to throw from the slope of the mound on Monday, and is expected to pitch off the mound "early next week."
After displaying immense potential in his first two major-league seasons by going 21-12 with a 3.45 ERA and 1.19 WHIP, Cole pieced together a breakout season in 2015. He went 19-8 record with a 2.60 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and 202 strikeouts versus 44 walks in 208 innings.
The 25-year-old righty, who was drafted first overall out of UCLA in 2011, made his first All-Star team during stellar 2015 season and finished fourth in the NL Cy Young Award voting.
