Michael Wacha threw his final bullpen session last week before spring training workouts began. General manager John Mozeliak, manager Mike Matheny and pitching coach Derek Lilliquist were present for the workout to see if Wacha's shoulder was doing fine.
The 23-year-old right-hander missed over two months in 2014 because of a stress reaction in his throwing shoulder and he was unable to return to form when he came off the disabled list. The Cardinals hope he can get back to where he was prior to the injury, especially because of the doubt surrounding staff ace Adam Wainwright.
"I don't have any of that feeling in the shoulder area," Wacha said via Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com. "I'm real happy with everything, the way everything is coming out, the way the arm feels throughout the whole 'pen. Hopefully I'll just keep building off of each bullpen, getting a little more command of each pitch each time out."
"It's a pretty rare injury, and a lot of people don't know how it happened or how to fix it rehab wise," he added. "I'm continuing to get stronger, and hopefully I'm building the muscles around the injury to where it doesn't happen again."
At this point, MRI results and offseason reports have all been positive and Wacha endured a "normal" offseason. However, the cause of the injury and the long-term effects are unknown, which makes his health a big concern heading into the season. Langosch noted Wacha threw last Friday, which was the first official workout date for the team's pitchers and catchers, and since then everything seems to be fine.
But Wacha will still have to earn his spot in the rotation during spring training because youngster Marco Gonzales and veteran Jaime Garcia are competing to become starters as well. Wacha seems to be heading in the right direction as of now.
"You can't perform the way you want to perform if you're thinking about a past injury or what's going to happen," he told the Associated Press, via FOX Sports. "My mind is totally clear."
