Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com reports that Brian Matusz threw a bullpen session today, just one day after from having a wart removed from his left middle finger.
“It feels fine. It doesn’t feel irritated at all. It feels normal. Like I said before, it never affected me on the mound. It didn’t affect any of my pitches. We just wanted to fix it before it became a problem. It felt good. I threw all of my pitches and it was fine. I didn’t feel like I had to hold back at all, so I’m on schedule.”
While it was originally assumed that Matusz would need a few days to recover, Ghiroli writes that it’s increasingly likely that the young southpaw will be available to make his next scheduled start on Tuesday.
Matusz, 24, went 10-12 with a 4.30 ERA over 32 starts last season, including a 2.11 ERA and 52/16 K/BB ratio after August 1. The American League East isn’t an easy place to have success, especially for an extreme fly-ball pitcher, but Matusz is the closest thing the Orioles have to an ace right now.