TAMPA — Jake Cousins is about to start his road back to the Yankees.
The reliever, who reported to camp with a forearm strain, is scheduled to begin a throwing program Monday, which will mark the end of a nearly five-week shutdown.
Cousins said he got the forearm re-imaged a few days ago and it looked “really good.”
“I’m ready to go,” he said Wednesday morning at Steinbrenner Field.
There was some thought to having Cousins start playing catch Friday, but doing so would not affect his timeline, he said.
“So we’re like, let’s just give it an extra two days to make sure things are done and then progress from there,” Cousins said.
Cousins will not be ready by Opening Day, but if everything goes well with his throwing program, he may not be too far behind.
Monday will mark about three weeks since the rest of the pitchers started spring training, though most of them were at least throwing bullpen sessions by the time they got here, so Cousins is more than three weeks behind.
In other injury news, Clarke Schmidt (back) threw a two-up bullpen session Tuesday and expects to throw a live batting practice by this weekend.
