Jimmy Nelson continuing to progress in his comeback from shoulder surgery

Todd Rosiak | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

LOS ANGELES -- Jimmy Nelson took another step forward Tuesday in his return from last September's right-shoulder surgery.

After visiting surgeon Neal ElAttrache and getting another positive report, Nelson began throwing off-speed pitches off a mound in a bullpen session before the Milwaukee Brewers' game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.

"He was happy with everything, the strength tests and stuff," Nelson said. "It was a good check-in, basically. He was happy with the way that the throwing has been going and the way it's been looking. He's seen some videos every now and then.

"He gave me the blessing yesterday, basically, to start working on my off-speed stuff and to start slowly increasing the volume of the mound work."

Here’s a look at Jimmy Nelson throwing off-speed stuff today at Dodger Stadium. pic.twitter.com/l7bXZ0AeDm — Todd Rosiak (@Todd_Rosiak) August 1, 2018

Nelson last pitched in a game Sept. 8 at Wrigley Field, where he suffered a major injury to his throwing shoulder diving back into first base after singling during an at-bat.

He had surgery 11 days later and has been progressing slowly but surely ever since. Nelson was shut down by ElAttrache for a period of 10 days earlier in the season for rest, but he's been back on a throwing program since about the end of May and has been throwing off a mound since early July.

While no one is offering any firm timetable for Nelson to ramp things up even more, or, more important, when he might be able to pitch in a game, the news has still been good for the 29-year-old.

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"I'm in a good spot," Nelson said. "Since we came back from the all-star break it's been progressing well. It still takes me a little bit of time to get loosened up and kind of get some of the aches and stiffness out of there. But after I get warm and loose it feels pretty good from there.

"You can't go from 50 percent to game speed one week to the next or you're probably going to hurt yourself. But the biggest thing we got from the doctor yesterday is he's not worried about anything being damaged from the throwing I'm doing. It's literally just a neuro-muscular thing at this point.

"Getting the nerves re-acclimated to the stresses of throwing. There's no telling how long that takes, but I'll be pretty happy and pretty pleased if it keeps progressing like it has since we got back from the all-star break."

Upon further review: Manager Craig Counsell was asked about the Brewers tenure of Jonathan Villar, who was traded for Jonathan Schoop earlier Tuesday in a swap of second basemen.

Villar had a breakout 2016 when he hit .285 with 19 home runs and 63 runs batted in and stole a major-league-leading 62 stolen bases. He regressed badly in 2017, losing his starting job at second base, and then wasn't much of a factor this season.

"I think Jonny’s a talented player. The last two years really, left-handed hitting-wise, he was just never able to get going," Counsell said. Villar hit .276/11/36 from the left side in 2016, .252/9/33 in '17 and .251/3/12 this season.

"He had a great season left-handed in 2016, and that’s what really made his season – he hit home runs and drove the ball in the gaps left-handed. This year it was a lot of ground balls and it kind of limited his offense a little.

"I think there were some other places he was improving a little bit. Defensively I think he was improving. But left-handed, you’re going to have more left-handed at-bats and he was kind of struggling getting the ball off the ground and driving the ball left-handed."