Chien-Ming Wang Is Three Months Away from a Return

According to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, the Dodgers have been keeping close tabs on pitcher Chien-Ming Wang recently, and they are saying that he is at least three months away from actually returning.

This has got to take some of the wind out of his sails because the last we heard from Wang’s agent, Alan Nero, he was pretty optimistic about getting a deal done quickly. At the time they thought Wang was on track to contribute during spring training with a possible return in May. Now this latest news has him returning in June at the earliest.

From what I can tell, there haven’t been any setbacks. It’s just one of those things where they were just guessing in the first place about his return date, and as time progressed, they got a better idea of where things stood. The last update also came from Wang’s agent, who is always going to be more optimistic than the teams.

This is exactly the reason why the Yankees decided to non-tender Wang in the first place, though. It’s making Brian Cashman look pretty smart here, too. Four million dollars might not seem like a lot to spend on Wang, but if he isn’t going to pitch until July, then that $4 million becomes mostly a waste.

This does kind of bode well for those Yankee fans hoping to see him return to New York. The other day, I wrote that fans might as well say goodbye now, and that’s probably still the case, but this slightly changes things.

The longer he is out for, the longer teams are going to want to wait to sign him, and the more time for things can go wrong with the Yankees rotation. At this point, that’s what it would take for him to return to the Bronx, something to go wrong.

Let’s say it’s late May/early June and the Yankees have had an injury or two and one or more of the young pitchers is disappointing. If Wang is still on the market, then you could expect the Yankees to have interest. That’s very unlikely, but certainly possible.

I still don’t think you should count on it. I also don’t think any Yankee fan is hoping for the conditions that it would take to secure his return, because if he does come back, it means things aren’t going as planned for the Bombers.

Related Stories

• January 29, 2010—Wang Will Be Next for Fans to Say Goodbye To (2)
• January 25, 2010—Nady and Wang Rumor Updates (0)
• January 23, 2010—Former Yankees On The Move (0)
• January 22, 2010—Wang Optimistic About Shoulder’s Progress, Mets Interested (0)