White Sox right-hander Lance Lynn is moving around without a limp at Guaranteed Rate Field and he played play catch Wednesday, eight days after having surgery on his right knee.
The All-Star who suffered a torn tendon during his last spring training game, is probably about seven weeks away from pitching for the Sox again, but he likes how the knee feels already.
“It’s moving along more quickly than the training staff would like, but right on my pace,” Lynn said.
General manager Rick Hahn had said Lynn would begin throwing two weeks after surgery and off a mound four weeks after, so throwing eight days after is encouraging.
“I’m ahead of schedule,” Lynn said. “But we’ll see how that goes because there’s still a lot of work left to do. We’ve got some time till I get on the mound. Everything’s good right now. We just need to make sure we stay on that pace.”
The important step is throwing off a mound.
“That’s going to tell us everything we need to know,” Lynn said. “Anything you do, stress-wise, on flat ground is not near as much as it is on the mound. So we’ll see, when it comes to that time, how we feel. And then after that, it’s building that pitch count.”
Lucas Giolito (lower abdominal strain) threw on flat ground before it rained Wednesday and “said he didn’t really feel it,” manager Tony La Russa said. “Some positive progress. Survive and thrive, man.”
New catcher McGuire ‘more than a stopgap’
Coach Jerry Narron likes what he sees from the Sox’ new second catcher, Reese McGuire, who has caught two of the team’s first four games.
“He throws real well, he has real quick feet behind the plate for a big guy, he’s athletic,” said Narron, who works with Sox catchers. “Calls a real good game and works with the pitchers well.”
McGuire threw out nine of 29 base stealers (31 percent) with the Blue Jays and did not commit an error behind the plate in 523 innings last season.
The Sox traded Zack Collins to the Jays for McGuire during the last week of spring training.
Narron said he was somewhat surprised early in camp to hear McGuire might be available.
“We started digging on him a bit. His numbers defensively were really, really good,” Narron said.
“He can definitely be more than a stopgap guy. He has a chance to be here for a while. I’m looking forward to seeing him get a chance to play. With Yas here, we’ll see how much playing time he gets. He’s got a chance to be really good.”
McGuire, 27, will not be a free agent until 2026.
Former Sox hurler Joel Horlen dies
Joel Horlen, a mainstay of White Sox starting rotations for most of the 1960s, has died. He was 84.
Horlen posted a career 3.11 earned run average with 1,065 strikeouts over 2,002 innings and led American League pitchers with a 2.32 ERA from 1964-68. He went 19-7 with a 2.06 ERA in 1967, finishing second in AL Cy Young voting behind Jim Longborg of the Red Sox.
