PRECEDENT-IAL DEBATE: Michael Pineda is expected this week to throw off a full mound for the first time since undergoing surgery for a torn labrum, the same surgery that seemed to save Curt Schilling’s career and end Mark Mulder’s. (
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TAMPA — Curt Schilling came back from shoulder surgery and was better than ever.
Mark Mulder was never the same.
The Yankees, who could use some good, young arms this season but may be in dire need of them in 2014, have their fingers crossed that Michael Pineda — still rehabbing from surgery last May to repair a torn labrum — follows Schilling’s lead.
Pineda, the centerpiece of last year’s trade that sent prized catching prospect Jesus Montero to the Mariners, has not pitched a game for the Yankees and won’t be back until July, at the earliest.
“He’s young and there’s no reason he can’t be better than he was before,” said Schilling, who underwent the procedure in 1995 at age 28 while with the Phillies. “Rehab is everything with this injury. I was in decent shape, but I didn’t take care of my arm. You’ll absolutely be in trouble again if you don’t keep it up after you come back and fall into old habits. If he comes back with the same work ethic, he’s going to get hurt.”
Pineda, 24, hasn’t suffered any setbacks in his recovery and is expected to pitch off a full mound next week for the first time since the surgery.
“He’s in better shape than when he showed up here last year, which is a low bar, admittedly,” said Mark Newman, senior VP of Baseball Operations. “I think he’s good. He knows how important the rehab is.”
No matter what Pineda does, though, there’s a distinct danger he never will be the pitcher general manager Brian Cashman traded for. Just ask Mulder. Shoulder woes chased him from the game.
“Physically, my shoulder was good as new,” Mulder said. “I just couldn’t throw it the way I used to.”
Mulder won 88 games for the A’s and Cardinals from 2001-05. He had his first shoulder surgery as a 29-year-old in 2006 and another to clean it up in 2007.
He was out of baseball after 2008.
“My muscle memory was gone and it never came back,” said Mulder, who, like Schilling, works for ESPN. “I kept trying to make it work. Every pitch was flat. My last start, my shoulder was strong, but my motion was so bad I thought my elbow was going to snap.”
In hindsight, Mulder said he believes he should have focused more on his mechanics and not solely on building arm and shoulder strength.
“You don’t know how you’re going to be until you start ramping it up,” Mulder said. “If his delivery is still the same, the arm strength can come with time.”
That realization came too late for Mulder.
“I hate seeing myself in a Cardinals uniform,” Mulder said. “My motion and release were so off. It makes me cringe when I see the pictures. I remember playing catch in the outfield and I was miserable because I couldn’t throw properly and there was nothing I could do about it.”
Eventually, he was told by a surgeon he wasn’t going to find the form he had previously,
“He told me there has to be someone to make up the 15-20 percent that doesn’t make it back,” Mulder said. “It was almost a relief when he told me that.”
For a Yankees team in search of affordable talent, that’s not the relief they are looking for.