Padres' Cashner cut cleaning carcass, out 3 months

• Andrew Cashner will miss the start of next season
• He cut his hand while cleaning a carcass on a hunting trip
• He was 3-4 with a 4.27 earned run in 33 games (five starts) in 2012

NASHVILLE – San Diego Padres pitcher Andrew Cashner probably will miss the start of next season after a tendon in the thumb of his pitching hand was cut while cleaning a carcass on a hunting trip.

General manager Josh Byrnes expanded on the incident, first mentioned Wednesday by manager Bud Black in a session with reporters. Byrnes said Cashner told him a friend's knife slipped, causing a wound that required surgery.

That's not nearly as frightening as the near-miss Cubs manager Dale Sveum revealed a day earlier – when pellets from Hall of Famer Robin Yount's gun hit Sveum's ear while they were quail hunting recently.

But Cashner, who was to compete for a spot in the Padres starting rotation this spring, will not be able to throw for three months, a timetable not like to allow time for him to be ready Opening Day.

"This was not Plan A," Byrnes told reporters, referencing an offseason in which catcher Yasmani Grandal

Cashner, 26, missed much of the second half of last season with a back muscle strain. He was 3-4 with a 4.27 earned run in 33 games (five starts) in his first Padres season after a trade from the Cubs.