"The diagnosis for Tom Glavine on Tuesday was that he has a strained rotator cuff and needs to take two weeks to rest before having another evaluation. As to what that really means for the 305-game winner and his future, that's still fairly nebulous.

Glavine knew that if his surgeon Dr. James Andrews saw a tear in his rotator cuff on the MRI, the decision would be cut and dried: consider retirement. Since it wasn't, Glavine, 43, is still in a holding pattern.

If he had to characterize how he was looking at things Tuesday afternoon, he said it was a glass half-empty.

"Right now, for me, the glass is probably half-empty, simply because I'm frustrated and tired with this whole rehab thing," said Glavine, who was set to make his debut Saturday in Pittsburgh before he suffered this setback. "But at the same time, being as close as I am - or was - I'm not willing to just say 'OK that's it.' I'm willing to put in a little bit more time."

There's a limit to that though. Glavine said if he's not convinced in two weeks that he's seeing improvement in his pain level or the strength in his shoulder, he'll consider hanging it up.

"I'll need to figure out how much more I want to go through with it," he said.

If there's no improvement, he likely would be looking at four to six more weeks of rest and rehabilitation and then he would have to start his pitching regimen over again. That would mean it could be after the All-Star break before he's pitching.

"I'm not interested in a season-long rehab or 'Let's try this for a month or two,' " Glavine said. "I did that last year. I don't want to do it myself, and I don't want to do it to this team. It's not fair to them."

Glavine had signed a one-year contract in February to attempt a comeback from elbow and shoulder surgery. It was for $1 million guaranteed plus another $3.5 million in bonus money based on the length of time he's on the active roster."