FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -Curt Schilling arrived at spring training Thursday to begin rehabilitating his right shoulder after apparently patching up his differences with the Boston Red Sox over the best way to treat it.
Schilling met with general manager Theo Epstein, manager Terry Francona and pitching coach John Farrell. The pitcher didn’t practice outdoors at the team’s camp.
“We just actually chatted with him,” Epstein said, “and everyone seems to be on the same page.”
That wasn’t the case last week when the Red Sox and Dr. Craig Morgan, brought in by Schilling for a second opinion, differed strongly.
Morgan, who operated on Schilling’s shoulder in 1995 and 1999, said the right-hander had a torn tendon and the only way he could pitch again is through surgery. The team contended that the tendon was damaged, not torn, and insisted on rehabilitation.
hose surgery.
Schilling did not speak with reporters Thursday, the official reporting date for pitchers and catchers.
The team hopes he can return early in the second half of the season.
“It’s way too early to put any kind of timetable on it. It’s just step-by-step,” Epstein said. “He’s at the very beginning of the process.”
Schilling received a shot of cortisone on Monday designed to reduce the pain and allow him to do his rehab exercises, Epstein said.
The shot, originally planned for last Friday, was delayed “to synchronize his arrival at camp with the right amount of days after the cortisone shot. He’s going to start work” Friday, Epstein said.
Schilling spent seven weeks on the disabled list last year with tendinitis in the shoulder. He was 9-8 with a 3.87 ERA in 24 games last season. In the postseason, he went 3-0 with a 3.00 ERA to help the Red Sox win their second World Series title in four years.
Without Schilling, the rotation shapes up as Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Tim Wakefield, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz, with Julian Tavarez and several others as possibilities.
“I think we’re in a situation where we’ll be able to handle it,” Francona said. “There are going to be some people that probably will get opportunities that maybe wouldn’t have.”
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