3/23 Lilly to start Minor League games

Ted Lilly will not start a Cactus League game but will make at least two starts with the Cubs’ Minor League team, beginning on Saturday. The left-hander, who is coming back from arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder, isn’t being held back. The Cubs simply want to keep the other starting pitchers on schedule.

“This will be the next to last workload for all our starters,” Lou Piniella said Tuesday, “and it’ll be the biggest workload of the spring for them. We don’t want them coming into the game for the third inning or so. I think Lilly will start and be on the same program the rest of the pitchers were, starting [Saturday].”

If there are no setbacks, Lilly could be inserted into the Cubs rotation sometime after April 15, Piniella said.

– Carrie Muskat