PITTSBURGH -- As right-handers Jameson Taillon, Chad Kuhl and Nick Burdi made their way around PNC Park during PiratesFest on Saturday, they found fans were all curious about a similar topic: their health heading into the season.

Taillon isn’t expected to appear in the Majors until 2021 after undergoing Tommy John surgery last year, but all three pitchers reported to Pittsburgh this week with encouraging news about their respective arm injuries.

Taillon, who had his second Tommy John in August, is already playing catch. Burdi is throwing bullpen sessions after a season cut short by neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome. And Kuhl is on track for Spring Training after sitting out last season following September 2018 Tommy John surgery.

Taillon threw for the first time since his surgery last Monday, then played catch again on Friday. He’ll throw three times a week for a few more weeks, then add distance and volume to his workload throughout the long road to full recovery. He has a basis of comparison -- his 2014 Tommy John surgery -- and he’s pleased with his progress so far.

“Everything I’m remembering, every checkpoint, whether it’s med-ball tosses or plyo work or pushups -- everything I’ve been doing -- and now throwing, if I compare it to last time, this time has been a better experience,” Taillon said. “Obviously, that has to stay the same for the next while, then when I start throwing off the mound, so I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. But I feel really, really good.”

Taillon hopes to be around the team as much as possible this season, helping pitchers with their game plans and flying up from Bradenton, Fla., for at least one series a month. He will also remain in his role as the Pirates’ representative to the MLB Players Association, giving him leadership responsibilities in a young clubhouse.

Taillon has spoken with other pitchers who returned from a second Tommy John, including former teammate Daniel Hudson and the Cubs’ Tyler Chatwood. His physical therapist in Houston worked with two-time Tommy John recipient Nathan Eovaldi. He understands the odds of successfully returning as a starting pitcher aren’t necessarily in his favor, but that remains his goal for 2021 and beyond.

“I’ve just been a starter my whole life, so I don’t really know anything different,” he said. “I’d be more than willing to learn how to throw out of the ‘pen if that’s best for long-term health or best for the team at that point, but I personally, selfishly, would like to prove to myself that I can come back as a starter.”

Meanwhile, it’s still unclear what role Kuhl will play in his return. The right-hander is preparing as a starter this offseason, and as of Saturday, he had thrown two fastball/changeup-only bullpen sessions. Next week he’ll throw all of his pitches, putting him on track to face hitters during the first week of Spring Training.

This wasn’t exactly a typical offseason for Kuhl -- he got married and honeymooned in Saint Lucia -- but he’s excited about a return to normalcy in Spring Training.

“I couldn’t really straighten my arm and flex it or do anything like that without pain before surgery,” Kuhl said. “Definitely a world of difference to know that I’m healed and everything is working the way it should.”

Like Taillon, Kuhl adjusted his throwing motion during the rehabilitation process, cleaning up his mechanics to keep his arm healthy for the long haul. Burdi did the same, studying such durable starters as Gerrit Cole and trying to mimic how they use their whole body to drive their deliveries.

“I’ve come to realize I wasn’t maximizing my potential on the mound. I was throwing at a high velocity but not doing it in the right biomechanic way,” Burdi said. “That was the big thing we started on with the throwing progression in November, maximizing how we can use the lower half and the ribcage, abs, all this stuff to be able to throw and have the arm along for the ride.”

As it turned out, Burdi’s arm was compromised long before he crumpled to the mound in excruciating pain last April 22 or even before his 2017 Tommy John surgery. The right-hander said he’d been dealing with the nerve issue since 2016, when the injury was misdiagnosed as a bone bruise. It turned out to be neurogenic thoracic outlet syndrome, and in the resulting surgery, doctors removed two scalene muscles and his first rib and released his pectoralis minor muscle.

For six weeks before the surgery, Burdi had no feeling in his pinky or ring fingers. About a week after the operation, he said, everything was back to normal.

The hard-throwing reliever still has to make the team and stick on the roster for more than a month to shed his remaining Rule 5 Draft restrictions, but he feels more confident than ever in his ability to pitch at the highest level now that he’s fully healthy. On Friday he threw 30 pitches in Pittsburgh -- his fourth bullpen session of the offseason.

“I’d say the last 15 pitches, I was really starting to let it go,” he said. “Usually after that, it feels like I just threw 200 pitches. That’s the feeling I would get in my elbow and bicep area. I don’t have that anymore.

“That’s the biggest thing, going back-to-back games or two out of three days, three out of four, I feel more confident about being able to do it over and over and be more consistent with it.”

Pirates react to sign-stealing report, Astros suspensions

Joe Musgrove and Colin Moran said on Saturday that they were not interviewed as part of MLB’s investigation into reports of Houston’s illegal sign-stealing in 2017-18. The league’s findings ultimately resulted in the dismissal of Astros GM Jeff Luhnow and manager AJ Hinch, Red Sox manager Alex Cora and Mets manager Carlos Beltrán.

Moran played in only seven games for the Astros in 2017, and none of his 12 plate appearances came in Houston, where the Astros used a live video feed near the dugout to distinguish and relay opponents’ signs to batters. Moran deferred most questions to Commissioner Rob Manfred’s report summarizing the investigation.

Musgrove was a more prominent member of that Astros team, making 38 appearances and cracking the club’s postseason bullpen, but he said the Commissioner’s report contained “pretty much the extent of what I knew.” Moran and Musgrove were traded to the Pirates in January 2018.

“I was in my first year, as a rookie. I was kind of keeping my mouth shut, keeping to myself and trying to learn from the guys I was around. I know I personally never benefited from any kind of sign-stealing,” Musgrove said. “It didn’t really work that way for pitchers. And I was in the bullpen for the majority of that season, so all that stuff that was going on, I wasn’t really necessarily in the dugout or around while it was going on. So it’s just stories that I hear.”

Several Pirates have been concerned for years about opponents using technology to steal their signs, with catcher Jacob Stallings describing the Bucs as “paranoid” when playing on the road.

“Opposing teams’ broadcasters make fun of us a lot for using multiple signs with no one on base,” Stallings said. “So, now everybody kind of knows why.”