Pirates' Braxton Ashcraft Gets Good News About Injury

PITTSBURGH — Braxton Ashcraft met with reporters at PNC Park on Saturday and made one thing abundantly clear: his arm is not seriously injured. The Pirates right-hander described the issue that ended his season as fatigue and general discomfort, not anything structural, and he expressed confidence that he would have been available had Pittsburgh reached the postseason.

"There was never any concern about a true injury," Ashcraft said. "It was more fatigue and discomfort. Just doing our due diligence and making sure I would be available for a playoff push, had we gotten there. We took everything day-by-day and assessed where we were at. Right now, it's just about throwing and preparing myself, my body and assessing where we're at still on a day-to-day basis. I felt great throwing. I just need to get ready to begin next year in a better spot than I ended this year."

Ashcraft explained that the discomfort came on suddenly after a season in which he had felt strong throughout. He said he was never sore all year long before the issue "kind of bit me in the butt" late in the campaign.

No Structural Damage

"I was never concerned," he said. "Nobody ever had a concern about anything being structural or anything that was more than just general discomfort, because of fatigue. It was one of those things that kind of presented all of a sudden. It's part of the game. It's part of learning. It's part of going into your first full year with a true workload and learning how to manage that. I feel like the entire year, I did a really good job of that."

The 27-year-old described the specific nature of the issue, which involved tightness in his pec and what he called "radial nerve line stuff." He traveled to Arlington to be evaluated, and the consensus among the medical professionals he saw was that there is no long-term concern provided he stays diligent about recovery.

"It was general arm stuff," Ashcraft said. "Again, recovery wasn't great. Nothing on the inside of the elbow or shoulder or anything like that. Partly my pec was tight, but I wasn't really sore in my pec. Then it was kind of radial nerve line stuff. Went down to Arlington and saw some guys there. It's the consensus between everybody. It's not a concern and not something that's gonna bleed into anything further than this so long as I stay diligent about how I take care of my body."

Ashcraft admitted he tried to talk the training staff into letting him pitch through it, but he understands the decision to shut him down. He emphasized the importance of transparency with the medical staff and front office.

"I tried. Tried to try to talk them into it," he said. "But again, just with where we're at and the understanding that we had this year between training staff, DK, Ben, front office, everybody — they can't do their jobs if I'm not completely transparent about how I feel. The training staff is here to keep people on the field, and they can't do their jobs if they don't know the whole story. So just being confident in my relationship with them, with DK and the front office, it's easy to be transparent."