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DUNEDIN, Fla. — The immediate swelling was a strong indication something was wrong with Yankees pitcher Freddy Garcia’s right hand. The amount of time it took him to leave Thursday’s 7-5 loss to the Blue Jays was another.
“If you walk away, forget it,’’ catcher Francisco Cervelli said. “That guy loves to throw no matter what happens.’’
Garcia was nearing the end of another superb outing when his right hand got in the way of a Edwin Encarnacion grounder and it hit him below the index finger knuckle. The ball popped up in the air and almost before the ball landed, the veteran right-hander was walking off the mound.
“The hand swelled a lot right away,’’ manager Joe Girardi said. “I don’t know what that means.’’
Garcia was taken for X-rays in Tampa and the Yankees announced Dr. Allen Miller, the club’s orthopedic surgeon in Tampa, was tending to Garcia. The X-rays were negative.
In three innings, Garcia gave up two runs, four hits and fanned three.
Had Garcia suffered a broken bone, Girardi’s competition of four arms for three spots in the rotation would have been over. That would have meant Ivan Nova, Michael Pineda and Phil Hughes would have followed CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda.
But just because the hand is not broken doesn’t mean 35-year-old Garcia will return quickly. The Yankees are not saying how much time he will miss.
“That’s why you try to have depth every year,’’ Girardi said. “You hope it won’t come down to it.’’
Before Garcia was hit, Girardi mentioned for the second consecutive day that player options might come into play and that Michael Pineda might open the season in Triple-A.
“That’s a possibility,’’ Girardi said about a hurler being sent to the minors to start the season. “Some of the guys have options, if that’s what we need to do. But if it makes us a better team putting them in the bullpen we might do it.’’
Hughes, Nova and Pineda have options so they can be sent out without fear of being lost.
Pineda makes his third exhibition start Thursday against the Nationals, and the Yankees will be looking closely to see if the large right-hander’s velocity starts to climb.
After his start last Saturday against the Braves, Pineda said he was “conserving.’’
Acquired from the Mariners for Jesus Montero, Pineda carried a mid-90s fastball and slider with teeth.
So far, he hasn’t come close to 95 or 96 with the fastball, topping at 92 mph but consistently pitching between 88 to 91.
“If I didn’t see a jump from one [start] to two and I saw a little jump, that would throw up more of a red flag,’’ Girardi said. “You want his arm strength to be there because he is competing for a spot.’’
When the 23-year-old Pineda arrived in camp and admitted he was 10 pounds above the 270 he ended last season, the Yankees weren’t too concerned because they really didn’t know him. Now they are staying the course when it comes to arm strength, an issue with Hughes last spring that led to a nightmare of a season and may have been the reason he missed significant time with an inflamed right shoulder.
“Some guys are a little bit slower coming along than others,’’ Girardi said. “We haven’t had him in spring training to really know how he is. We don’t want him to conserve but we also want him to be ready to throw 95 to 96 when he is doing it. I don’t want him going out there and just airing it out just so he can hit 95, 96 on the gun.’’
Girardi is taking into account Pineda’s age and one year of big league experience that consisted of a strong first half last season and a drop off in the second.
“You have to see how a guy does and how he responds,’’ Girardi said. “This is not a kid who is 27 or 28-years-old. Some of these springs are uncharted for him, too. As long as he is going in the right direction, that’s the important thing for me.’’
The Yankees could also put the loser of the rotation race in the bullpen.
Hughes has more experience (49 games) than the others combined in relief, but some in the organization view him as the third starter.
Of Garcia’s 329 regular-season games, two have come in relief. It makes no sense to have Pineda’s 6-foot-7 frame in the bullpen when he could be starting every fifth day for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
george.king@nypost.com