CHICAGO -- Jake Peavy confirmed Sunday that he is being shut down with 2½ weeks remaining in the season and laid out multiple reasons for the drastic action.
Dylan Axelrod, whose contract was purchased from Triple-A Charlotte on Monday will assume Peavy’s start on Wednesday against the Detroit Tigers.
Not only had Peavy been struggling to get to full strength with his surgically-repaired latissimus dorsi muscle, he was dealing with a reoccurring groin issue and had received a cortisone shot in the second half to deal with discomfort behind his right shoulder.
He also noted that he has not been able to throw a between-start bullpen session since a high-octane relief appearance in late June against the Washington Nationals, when he was hitting as high as 95 mph on the radar gun.
“When you can’t do your full routine in between starts, we made the decision to let some of these guys have my starts,” Peavy said. “You find out what you’ve got maybe in a couple of these younger kids and I can start the rest to recovery and start what I look forward to being a good winter of work, just coming back next year and being hopefully a brand new man.”
Peavy finishes the season with a 7-7 record and a 4.92 ERA over 19 outings (18 starts).
He continues to maintain that the relief outing against the Nationals. When he threw four scoreless innings, is what proved to be the most costly this season.
“As I said, after that relief appearance I never felt the way I did previous to it,” Peavy said. “We had a pretty good routine. That’s nobody to blame but me. I wanted the ball and wanted to stay out there when I got out there. But if you go back and look at the stuff, I never threw as hard as I was.”
Last week, Guillen was operating as if Peavy would make his next start, but the decision to go a different route came from general manager Kenny Williams, pitching coach Don Cooper and Peavy himself.
“I don’t think there is a reason to go out there and push something if you don’t have to and get it worse,” Guillen said. “I respect players’ opinions. If they don’t feel good, they don’t feel good. I want the guy to always say when he’s hurt or can’t perform or doesn’t feel good enough to go out there.”
Peavy said he will remain with the team through the end of the season and not begin a workout program until the middle of October. He doesn’t plan on starting a throwing program until the middle of December.
“I was told it was going to take about a year and a half, about 18 months, until things are back in place and settled and it’s going to be about as good as it gets,” Peavy said. “I can’t wait for the winter. I have some downtime now for the next few weeks, I’ll still work with the trainers then go into a little bit of a rest mode before the work in the middle of October starts.”