Matt Thornton and His Old Arm

Matt Thornton’s arm is bothering him now that he’s begun throwing again. You can classify it however you like, discomfort is a nice vague way to put it. The skipper has labeled it as “old arm,” which isn’t terribly kind. The official ruling per the MRI, however, is “inflammation.”

What does this mean? It means the White Sox highest paid reliever may be wearing down. Of course, seeing the lefty’s strikeout rate go down over 5% each year since 2010 might be slightly more concerning, but it’s certainly a problem if the White Sox are forced to include, say, Leyson Septimo on the active roster once spring training concludes. The good news is that spring training is long, and there is plenty of time for the team to take it easy with him, let him rest up and let the inflammation go down before deciding how to proceed from there. If it’s just a matter of a little too much too soon for the 36 year old, he should be ready to fire away by the time everybody heads north.