PIRATES

Jared Jones (elbow) met with Dr. Keith Meister on Tuesday and has been cleared to begin a light throwing program, Todd Tomczyk said this afternoon.

“Very encouraged with his progress, very encouraged with the overall range of motion and strength,” Tomczyk said of Jones, who underwent an internal brace surgery on his right elbow in May. “He’s on track for our original projection of returning to game activity around 10 to 12 months.” 

Up to this point, Jones has taken part in one-hand plyometrics and two-hand plyos, and has responded well to those activities, Tomczyk said. In beginning his throwing program, Jones will start out by throwing out to 45-60 feet. He’ll build up volume with multiple sets of 25 throws and rest in between, and will continue to build gradually from there over a significant amount of time.

• Justin Lawrence (elbow) has had five rehab appearances between low Class A Bradenton and Class AAA Indianapolis and is scheduled to pitch in back-to-back outings with Indy later this week. 

“He’s doing well performance-wise, and the velocity and all the metrics have returned to how they were prior to the injury,” Tomczyk said. “We’re going to see how he recovers after (the back-to-back outings) and then we’ll get with Donnie (Kelly), Ben (Cherington), Jeremy Bleich and Oscar (Marin) to see if there’s anything else the pitching department might want to see as far as a multiple-inning, or multiple-up, outing. Still, most importantly, we believe he’s recovering good and pitching at a high level.” 

• Thomas Harrington is back on the injured list after feeling his right groin grab again on the 15th pitch of his most recent outing with Class AAA Indianapolis on Aug. 28. Tomczyk said that subsequent exams and imaging showed a moderate strain to that groin area. 

“He is actually feeling good and playing catch out to 90 feet, but we’re taking it day by day with him,” Tomczyk said. “Too early to make a projection of return just yet.” 

Harrington previously spent time on the injured list with a similar groin issue in mid-August. 

• Ronny Simon (shoulder) will get a second opinion next week to determine whether surgery to repair the labrum in his left shoulder is necessary. Tomczyk said once everything is settled, they can establish a more formal return to play. 

• Jack Suwinski (right groin) advanced to low-level running on the AlterG (anti-gravity) treadmill. He responded well to that and is participating in some light hitting activities and some advanced rehab exercises.

"He's making some nice progress," Tomczyk said. "Still have some obstacles and hurdles to overcome. Some benchmarks if you must from a strength perspective and then obviously getting outside and running. But he is making some nice progress."

• Enmanuel Valdez (shoulder) was expected to get clearance to begin hitting by Dr. Jeffrey Dugas but did not. Tomczyk said it wasn't a setback of sorts. Given the time of the season, Dr. Dugas felt it was more advantageous to take a couple more weeks of strengthening and line him up for some offseason play. 

• Billy Cook (hand) is supposed to visit Dr. Peter Tang for a three-week post-injury exam next week. 

"We'll have more information at that time," Tomczyk said. "Hopefully we can progress to some upper-level baseball activities."