Archer, Polanco face challenge to return

PITTSBURGH — Chris Archer still isn't throwing. Gregory Polanco still isn't throwing full-tilt.

With the calendar about to flip to September, all involved with the Pirates in the rehabilitation of both will have to make decisions sooner rather than later, Todd Tomczyk, the Pirates' director of sports medicine, told reporters Wednesday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park, though he very much left open the possibility that one or both could return in 2019.

Archer, out with a shoulder injury sustained eight days ago at PNC Park, has begun what Tomczyk described as "advanced, one-armed plyometrics," and I saw him throwing a medicine ball off the wall in the clubhouse here Wednesday, but there's nothing yet scheduled with an actual baseball.

"Chris' hope is to return to pitch," Tomczyk said, "or at least to get his arm feeling right before the end of the season."

TRENDING NOW:

Cox Media Group