Jose Contreras made his final minor-league rehab appearance this morning at Triple-A, throwing two scoreless innings, and Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that he’ll likely be activated from the disabled list tomorrow.
Contreras was filling in for Brad Lidge as the Phillies’ closer when an elbow injury shut him down in mid-April, but three weeks later he’ll return as a setup man thanks to Ryan Madson thriving in the ninth inning while he was out.
Madson is 9-for-9 converting saves with a 0.47 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 19 innings, finally showing that he’s capable of dominating in the ninth inning just like he has for years in the seventh and eighth innings.
Contreras seems likely to assume Madson’s old setup role, although if Madson has a rough patch manager Charlie Manuel probably won’t be hesitant to hand closing duties back to Contreras after initially picking him to do the job over Madson in the first place.
