Injury-prone Hideki Irabu may be shown the door by the Montreal Expos, an article on the National League club's official Web site said Thursday -- opening another door to his possible return to Japanese baseball.
The home page posted the article titled "Irabu's days with Expos could be numbered" hours after Montreal's announcement that the right-hander had been suspended for seven days for violating terms of his contract. Details of the nature of those violations were not specified.
The suspension came 24 hours after Montreal manager Jeff Torborg told Irabu that he "would be used out of the bullpen if he came off the disabled lift in September," the article said.
"There was speculation around Turner Field on Wednesday night (when Montreal played against the Atlanta Braves) that Irabu may have gone back to his native Japan," it said.
Expos officials said they were not aware of anything like that.
With the Expos, Irabu is 2-7 with a 6.69 ERA as knee and elbow problems have kept him on the disabled list for much of his two seasons in Montreal, limiting him to 11 starts in 2000 and only three this season.