Elephant Rumblings: Pair of pitchers making progress

Welcome to a brand new well everyone!

The club got some very good news regarding a couple of their highest regarded pitching prospects. Right-ganders Luis Medina and Mason Miller began making progress in their return from injuries:

Medina looks to be the closer of the two to returning to the squad. Originally placed on the IL with a blister on his pitching hand, Medina could be a candidate for a fast-tracked rehab assignment. He was only placed on the IL a week ago after only making it through three innings against the Baltimore Orioles. A blister issue isn’t too serious but we’ve seen other pitchers struggle with constant blisters. Luckily it looks like Medina’s is minor and he might even make a quick return to the club later this week.

As for Miller, he’s been out far longer with a much more serious injury. Placed on the IL all the way back in May with a ‘mild’ UCL sprain, the initial fear was that he might need the dreaded Tommy John surgery, which would have ended his season and eaten into his 2024 year. He had only made four starts for the club before the elbow issue cropped up and the club has been extremely cautious with their top pitching prospect.

Luckily since the injury we have received almost exclusively good updates. He resumed throwing in June then threw a 20-pitch bullpen session at the end of July before getting in his first bullpen to live hitters in early August. He finally made it into actual games soon after that; he’s started three games for the Aviators but only throwing 6 ²⁄₃ innings. The club is obviously being very cautious with Miller but they seem ready to start really ramping him up. If everything continues going smoothly then there’s no reason we won’t see Miller in September, and that’s something to get excited about.

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