Jason Kipnis will have to wait a bit to make his 2017 spring debut in Arizona.
Kipnis was slated to act as the designated hitter in Sunday's Cactus League game against the Chicago Cubs but was scratched after being diagnosed with a rotator cuff strain and receiving a cortisone shot, per Indians manager Terry Francona.
"If it was during the season, we wouldn't do anything," Francona told reporters in Goodyear, Ariz. "There's just so much time to get ready (for the season) that to kind of put a Band-Aid on it now didn't seem to make sense. ... It's considered a (rotator cuff strain), which in the grand scheme of things is about the least you're ever going to find when you do that."
Kipnis will be shut down from throwing for four to five days.
"I think from time to time he does feel it," Francona said. "I would probably say eight out of the 10 days that are throwing, as their arms get loose, you feel something. You throw through stuff and you get through the aches and pains of getting back.
"But when there's some history there, you just try to use good judgment."
