Ryan Pepiot\u00a0understands the confusion and frustration Rays fans may be having over his status.<\/p>\n
He feels it, too.<\/p>\n
What initially was considered a minor late-spring issue with right hip inflammation that might force him to miss a couple of starts is now having a major impact on his season, sidelining him until at least late May, with no set return date.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a whole lot of nothing (at the time). I think we all did,\u201d Pepiot said Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s just kind of not (being able to) bounce back or still feeling things. It\u2019s a weird one. It\u2019s tough, because I can walk around and I can do things, and I feel like I\u2019m fine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I get to do my job, and I physically am struggling to do that. So, obviously it\u2019s frustrating, and I\u2019m getting frustrated when I\u2019m out there because I\u2019m trying to do what I know how to do. I\u2019ve thrown thousands and thousands of pitches. I know where my body\u2019s supposed to be, and to be able to execute something, get in the zone. And not being able to do that, it\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the initial planned rest, treatment and rehab didn\u2019t alleviate the issue, Pepiot last week went to see hip specialist Dr.\u00a0Thomas Byrd. He received a cortisone shot on\u00a0April 13\u00a0and was given a similar program.<\/p>\n
Pepiot played catch for the first time Monday. Though manager Kevin Cash\u2019s frank assessment \u2014 Pepiot had \u201ca bad day\u201d with the hip feeling unstable \u2014 didn\u2019t sound encouraging, Pepiot said he wasn\u2019t that concerned, figuring the medicine needs more to take effect.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast week was a pretty relatively easy week for me, just to let (the cortisone) do its work,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously, I\u2019m very nitpicky on how I\u2019m feeling and all that stuff. (Monday) wasn\u2019t great. I played catch to 60 feet and didn\u2019t feel 100%, but it\u2019s as to be expected. I got an injection a week ago. It\u2019s still got to work its time. We\u2019ve got to clear out the inflammation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve thrown a lot of innings on my legs, just have some normal wear and tear and everything. But it\u2019s just go out every day, kind of take it day by day and see how my body\u2019s feeling, how I\u2019m reacting and just continue on the program.\u201d<\/p>\n
His status and next step will be evaluated on a day-to-day basis, as will whether he\u2019ll be ready to be reinstated from the 60-day injured list by his May 24 eligibility date.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to put a timetable on it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Pepiot\u00a0understands the confusion and frustration Rays fans may be having over his status. He feels it, too.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,4,297,76070,185,2550,68,2551,2549],"class_list":{"0":"post-681863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-rays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-rays","11":"tag-social-sports","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabayrays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116456345558098413","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}