SEATTLE - Mariners ace Erik Bedard went on the 15-day disabled list Tuesday with hip inflammation that is getting better but hasn't gone away.

The move is retroactive to April 9, the day after Bedard last pitched. But the man who brought so much hope for this season with him to Seattle isn't sure when he might pitch again.

The 28-year-old strikeout maestro for whom the Mariners traded five players to Baltimore in February was scratched from a start Sunday, for the second time in eight days. He played catch before Tuesday's game against Kansas City, then emerged from manager John McLaren's office with a trainer, smiling and joking.

"It's a lot better," Bedard said, adding when asked if the pain comes and goes that "it's going now."

But when asked if he would be able to take his next turn in the rotation Friday at the Los Angeles Angels, Bedard scoffed, chuckled and said, "No way."

Seattle announced an hour later that Bedard was going on the DL. The Mariners will make a corresponding roster move Wednesday.

"We have said consistently that we're not going to rush Erik back," McLaren said. "At this point, we thought it made the most sense to go ahead and place him on the DL. It should not change when he's available to make his next start, and gives us the ability to add another player in the meantime."

McLaren said knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, whose last major league start was 24 months ago with Texas, will likely take Bedard's turn against the Angels -- and perhaps next week's in Seattle against the Orioles. April 24 is the last day of a three-game series with Baltimore.

Bedard set an Orioles record with 221 strikeouts last season despite missing the final month of the season with a strained oblique muscle. He said he doesn't know when he can get back on a mound for a bullpen session, let alone a game.

"I think rest is the only thing that helps it right now," he said.

Bedard isn't sure if his hip is destined to bother him all season.

"I have no idea," he said. "My next start, we'll see. If it still hurts after that, then maybe it will be a long-term thing."

Bedard said he has had hip inflammation before, in 2000 during his first full professional season in the Orioles' minor leagues, but not again until he told the Mariners about pain before his scheduled homecoming start at Baltimore on April 6. Two nights later, at Tampa Bay, Bedard allowed five runs in a laborious six innings but got enough offensive support for his first Seattle win.

His third missed start this month comes while the other bookend of a revamped staff, All-Star closer J.J. Putz, continues his incremental progress toward returning from a ribcage injury that has sidelined him since April 1. Putz will throw off a bullpen mound on Wednesday for the second time this week and may throw in a simulated game before the weekend. The Mariners still haven't decided if Putz, who is unlikely to come off the disabled list Friday when he first becomes eligible to, will go to the minor leagues for a rehabilitation assignment before being activated.

McLaren keeps emphasizing patience and caution with Putz, too.

Dickey is a 33-year-old former No. 1 draft choice of the Rangers who arrived Tuesday from Triple-A Tacoma and pitched a perfect ninth inning hours later. It was his first major league appearance since April 6, 2006. He has been with Milwaukee and Minnesota since Texas let him go later that year.

Now he is preparing for his first start in two years.

"It's a real redemptive game," Dickey said. "Yeah, it's been a long time. It will be great."