JUPITER, Fla. – Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter played catch for about five minutes Wednesday, the first time he’s thrown a ball since occurring neck pain on March 3.
Carpenter, dealing with a bulging disc in his back, reported positive results.
"I felt good today but that right there isn’t a whole lot," Carpenter said. "It was just to go out and see how it feels. I just wanted to go out and play catch.
"I knew that yesterday I felt pretty good and had a good day so I think we all knew coming into today that if I felt good this morning that we were going ahead and play catch."
Carpenter endured a career-high 273 1/3 innings last year between the regular season and playoffs. His spring training plan had already been modified to limit his workload before enduring stiffness and range of motion issues in his neck following a throw to hitters eleven days ago.
"I continue to go in the right direction which is what they were hoping, so now we’ll continue to move forward and see what happens," Carpenter said. "But that’s not up to me. That’s up to them."
The right-hander said he’s regained his full range of motion and will discuss a next step with the trainers later today.
The Cardinals would like Carpenter to make three spring starts before clearing him to start Opening Day. With the opener set for April 4 in Miami, Carpenter would need to start the March 20 game against the Astros in Kissimmee to be on track.
Lance Lynn will start Wednesday’s game and will prepare to start as a backup plan should Carpenter not be ready by Opening Day.
