The last time we saw Gil Meche on the mound, it wasn't pretty.
Back on May 25th, he gave up four home runs in a loss to the Ranges extending his ERA to a devil-like 6.66. Just four days later we found out part (but certainly not all) of the reason for his struggles when the Royals placed him on the 15-day disabled list with right shoulder bursitis.
The Royals were originally hoping he could return to the rotation last week but that obviously didn't happen.
He finally started throwing from the mound this week and, if things go well, manager Ned Yost hopes to see him back after the All-Star break.
"He's definitely making progress," manager Ned Yost said. "We said you start making progress when you get his schedule worked out and we got the schedule worked up today so he's definitely making progress and we've tentatively got a date worked out, if everything goes right, for his return. So it'll probably be sometime after the All-Star break."
So the Royals originally hoped he would be ready to reclaim his spot in the rotation last week but now it won't come for another month. Sounds about right.
Meche has been ineffective all season so his return shouldn't matter a whole lot. Bruce Chen has been taking his spot in the rotation and, while he's not necessarily better, at least he's different. That has to count for something, right?