As a Dr., it is a concern that the thumb is still an issue.
If it was going to heal, it would have by now.
I am thinking that they have taken a hopeful, conservative approach with the thumb, looking to see him in the fall. My opinion is that those throws in the spring told them what they need to know, with little chance for significant further improvement. This is based on:
1. My own broken right thumb in middle school and its healing pattern
2. Medical experience.
No body wants to have surgery and thumb surgery is "difficult" at best in terms of getting things to be better than they are with a chronic injury now, so its easy to understand the current approach.
However, this leads to him getting a lot of first team reps that someone else could have gotten, when I am concerned that we will see him have throwing problems in the fall, and quickly hear that corrective surgery will then be recommended with him being lost then for the rest of 2022.
Double whammy, sets back Purdy or Smothers development, and we lose Thompson for the whole year......
GBR