CY Fighting To Get Back In Time

Next to “Are the Padres going to get a bat, and who will it be?”, the second most asked question in recent weeks has been “What’s the word on Chris Young? Will he be back soon?”

I spoke with Chris over the weekend, and the word is he is trying to get himself back on the mound as soon as possible.  After his unexpected setback from his shoulder surgery, he has gone through a variety of steps to try to get his shoulder strength back.  He’s rested it, exercised it, medicated it, and started the early process of a throwing program, all in an effort to get himself back to being competition ready before the end of the season.

The challenge, of course, has been trying to do as much as possible as quickly as possible, without doing too much too fast thus causing at a minimum another setback which could eliminate any chance of his helping the team further, and at worst another trip under the knife.

He has been on an easy throwing program, and the hopes are that he will respond positively, thus allowing him to increase the program to the point where he can get on a mound.  Once he reaches that point a timetable can tentatively be constructed that might allow for him to be MLB ready before it becomes too late for him to be a factor in the Pads division run.

Chris seems hopeful that things will go well, and that he will be able to contribute before the year’s end, but there is still a good dose of uncertainty as to whether his arm will respond quickly enough for that to happen.  For now all Chris and Padres fans can do is continue the prescribed program, say a prayer, and keep their fingers crossed, because a positive contribution from him down the stretch could potentially be a huge difference maker for this team of surprises.

Get well, CY!

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