Peavy: Too much, too soon

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Jake Peavy knows his chances of making the opening-day roster fall somewhere between slim and none.

Probably much closer to none. He finally acknowledged that on Friday.

The White Sox right-hander remains optimistic as always, however, about the possibility of pitching at a high level this season. That would more than likely not happen before May 1, however.

“Obviously, I think at this point in time to start the season doesn’t look very promising,” said Peavy, whose comeback from surgery to reattach a torn lat was temporarily derailed by rotator cuff tendinitis.

The Sox are already planning on Phil Humber to start the fifth game of the season in Peavy’s spot on April 6 in Kansas City.

Peavy played catch on Friday, plans to play again today and wants to throw 30-40 pitches off a mound on Sunday “and see if we can get back to where we were,” he said.

“We obviously think we did a little too much, too soon and the shoulder wasn’t ready to respond like we wanted it to,” Peavy said. “There certainly is nothing structurally wrong or nothing like that. They told me that was going to be the hardest thing, to pitch and bounce back and do it again.

“We didn’t have any setbacks until we got on the mound and started pitching in those games and trying to get healthy enough to do it every five days. So hopefully Sunday goes well and we’ll get in a game at some point in time and get in a game five days later and keep climbing and get back to where we want to be.”

Peavy repeated on Friday that he won’t pitch for the Sox until he is “normal.”

“I don’t want to have to go out there … just trying to get through it. I’m done with that phase,” Peavy said. “I want to get on the mound in Chicago. I expect to feel like everything is normal. I promised [general manager] Kenny [Williams] and those guys I wouldn’t get out there unless that was the case.”