CINCINNATI — Though Francisco Cervelli’s left wrist is not quite healed and could require further attention in the offseason, it progressed enough for the Pirates to activate him Friday from the 10-day disabled list.
Cervelli went on the DL Aug. 17, retroactive to Aug. 14. He took batting practice Wednesday and tested the wrist again Thursday.
“Everything,” Cervelli said. “I hit in BP, hit off the machine, receiving.”
But Cervelli played only two innings in the field Friday night against the Cincinnati Reds in his return before leaving the game because of left quadriceps discomfort.
He walked to lead off the third inning and went to second on a single. Adam Frazier’s RBI single drove him in, but Chris Stewart replaced him in the bottom of the inning.
The pain in Cervelli’s wrist is related, he said, to the surgery he had in 2016 to remove the fractured hook of the hamate bone in that hand.
“I have scar tissue there,” Cervelli said. “It’s the same pain, but I don’t have the bone anymore.”
He did not receive an injection and said he does not think he’ll need surgery, but did say he will address the issue further in the offseason.
“I'm going to put a plan with the trainer, because next year, it cannot happen then,” he said.
Cervelli is hitting .249 with a .340 on-base percentage and .370 slugging percentage in 80 games. He also missed time this season due to two stints on the seven-day concussion DL.
“We're probably going to manage him the same way before he got hurt again, because we’re trying to make sense of it all,” manager Clint Hurdle said.
To make room on the roster, the Pirates optioned Elias Diaz to Class AAA Indianapolis. Diaz cannot return for 10 days, unless someone on the active roster goes on the DL, regardless of the Sept. 1 roster expansion, so he cannot return until Sept. 5.
McCutchen sits
Andrew McCutchen got the day off Friday. Other than one game due to a knee injury, McCutchen had not missed a game since the All-Star break.
“Him and I stay in conversation about it and chose [Friday],” Hurdle said.
McCutchen has a .241 average, a .326 OBP and a .316 slugging percentage (.642 OPS) in August.
Internal reports
When deciding how to deploy relievers he hasn’t had much hands-on experience with this season, Hurdle leans on daily reports from minor league coaching staffs and his conversations with those coaches.
“That’s how you build cohesion throughout your system, from the major league level to the player development people,” he said.
The Pirates just went through a bullpen overhaul that brought Steven Brault, Dovydas Neverauskas, Johnny Barbato, Edgar Santana and Angel Sanchez to the majors. Hurdle had some level of experience with everyone but Sanchez, but not much recently this season.
Hurdle receives a report from each minor league manager, hitting coach and pitching coach every day. He pays special attention to players who reached the majors before going back down and players he hears might come up soon. He’ll augment the reports with conversations.
“There’s a lot of trust involved,” he said. “Every time that those guys will tell me something and I'm able to put it in play up here — it’s not so much whether we have success with it or not — I trust them. And it shows them the trust.”
Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.
First Published: August 25, 2017, 7:52 p.m.
