Remember back when Derek Holland was the big injury story in the Texas Rangers organization.
Unfortunately, that's not the case anymore as Holland as more than enough company on the disabled list after he tripped over his dog and fell down some stairs back in January before eventually needing microfracture surgery on his knee.
Holland has been killing his rehab, at least in terms of a possibly early return, and the original prognosis had his timetable for return set as "sometime after the all-star break," meaning the later half of July. As time has gone on, the timetable has changed.
Holland has insisted he will be ready by June 1, which clearly is not going to happen at this point.
But, he could be back much sooner than the original plan.
There was a suggestion that Holland could be out on a rehab assignment soon after he threw a simulated game in Arizona over the weekend, but Rangers GM Jon Daniels said to tap the brakes on that idea.
"The original prognosis was second half after the All-Star break, and he's come along so quickly in a lot of areas that we're hopeful it's before that," Daniels told reporters. "But there was some highly optimistic thought that he could be ready for a rehab assignment as early as next week, but we're going to tap the brakes on that."
No worries, Rangers fans. That would've been well ahead of schedule, and Holland appears to be on pace to still be back before he was expected to be.