JUPITER, Fla. • The on-again, off-again health of reliever Jordan Walden is off again as minutes after completing an impressing inning of work against Miami the righthander notified the team he was sore. Again.

"I'm not ready for the season," he told reporters soon after.

Walden felt some form of soreness in his problematic right shoulder while throwing a scoreless inning and striking out a batter. He hit 95 mph on the radar gun, and he was able to locate his slider with effectiveness. It was when throwing one of those sliders that he felt familiar and telling discomfort.

Instead of going with the team to Tampa, Fla., for the spring finale against the Yankees, Walden will go see a doctor about his shoulder.

"I know I can pitch through discomfort, but there comes a point when you can't pitch through pain," Walden said. "I'll be back. I know I'll be back."

That could take some time.