ERIC WEDGE UPDATE
According to Jack, via Greg Johns, who speaks with him everyday, he’s progressing well but, won’t join the team just yet when the team returns home . . .

“I don’t think Eric will be with us this week,” Zduriencik said prior to Sunday’s series finale with the Orioles. “I know he has a couple appointments ongoing. He’s got something midweek where he’s going to sit down with doctors.

“He’s doing well. I talk to him every day and he sounds normal and he’s excited to get back here. He wants to get back. But when Eric gets back, you want him to be back. His anxiousness to get back here in the dugout is one thing, but this is a life-long health issue for him. When he gets back managing this club, we want him to be here. You don’t want him to come in here and be here for two or three days.

“The stress of a ballgame, the length of time a manager has to put in and the way he is — he comes early and leaves late — from our standpoint, they just need to sign off and say you’re 100 percent ready to go so we don’t have a bump in the road where he’s out here 3-4 days and then has to take a step back. That’s not fair to Eric or fair to the ballclub. I think we’ll just wait and give it a little more time.”

M*A*S*H
Really disappointing news on Stephen Pryor – here’s Shannon’s report

Reliever Stephen Pryor has suffered a significant setback in attempt to return to the Mariners this year from a lat injury. As I reported yesterday, Pryor was to get checked out further by team doctors to see what was causing a “bruising sensation” in the area of his triceps. General manager Jack Zduriencik told us this morning in Baltimore what was found on his MRI was concerning enough to shut him down for the remainder of the year.

“They really didn’t like what they saw,” Zduriencik said. “He is going to get re-evaluated and we are going to look through this thing further as it is very unusual.”

Zduriencik was not sure how or specifically when the injury occurred. He said it is not related to the previous lat injury, however.

This is tough news for the team that could use a healthy Pryor in the bullpen but even a bigger blow for Pryor, who has been working hard to come back from the original injury.

Disappointing on another level (though we’ve been hearing it would happen for months now) – Jesus’s suspension . . .
Larry’s story

“The Seattle Mariners are disappointed that Jesus Montero has violated the terms of Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.  Our organization fully supports the Program and its efforts to eliminate performance-enhancing substances from our game.”

The Mariners said that will be their only comment on the matter. Commissioner Bud Selig  and union chief Michael Weiner also had lengthy statements which can be found at the end of this post. Weiner said of the 12 players who didn’t appeal (excluding A-Rod): “The accepted suspensions announced today are consistent with the punishments set forth in the Joint Drug Agreement, and were arrived at only after hours of intense negotiations between the bargaining parties, the players and their representatives.

The Mariners haven’t had a player on their 40-man roster suspended for PEDs since Ryan Franklin, Jamal Strong and current Mariner Mike Morse in 2005. One of the unique things about this case is that none of the players failed a drug test. However, baseball still has the power to suspend players based on a “non-analytical positive” — evidence other than a drug test. The 23-year-old Montero is currently playing in Tacoma. It is believed Montero will be able to serve his entire suspension this season even though Tacoma has just 28 games remaining this season.

Montero has been linked to the Biogenesis Anti-Aging clinic since Februry – an association he strongly and repeatedly denied when the story first broke in the New York Daily News on Feb. 6. The Daily News reported that Montero had been named in the records of Biogenesis, the clinic which is at the heart of MLB’s latest PED scandal.