Brendan Ryan's timetable may be accelerated somewhat following a successful workout on Monday. The Cardinals' shortstop is recuperating from February right wrist surgery, and he hopes to be available to play for the team on Opening Day, April 5, in Cincinnati.
Monday brought a step forward in Ryan's rehabilitation. He took soft toss for the first time since the operation. Soft toss is a kind of batting practice where a coach or teammate stands very close to the player and tosses a ball up in the air. The player swings, hitting a ball into a net. Ryan took 15 swings in soft toss as part of his Monday workout. He'll increase that to 30 on Tuesday and 45 on Wednesday. After a day off on Thursday, he hopes to take actual batting practice on Friday, which is three days earlier than he had expected.
Ryan had been hitting off a tee before Monday.
"Soft toss went no different than hitting off the tee," Ryan said. "It was all good things. Even in the soft toss, I let it eat two or three times at about 100 percent. And I finished on my best swing with 100 percent. Even with my limited power, I'm pretty sure it was a homer."
Ryan's tentative timetable had been to begin taking batting practice in one week, with the hope of appearing in a Grapefruit League game one week after that.
"Things are cautiously optimistic on where he's at," general manager John Mozeliak said. "I think time will tell, when you put a bat in his hand and go full-throttle, see how it's taking. But right now he's pain-free."
No comments:
Post a Comment