CLEVELAND: With Michael Brantley and the Indians, a wait-and-see approach will be the only real option as he progresses his way through spring training, regardless of how positive the reports are pertaining to his rehab.
Brantley’s 2016 season was more of a nightmare, laced with setbacks and near returns, only to have him on the bench for all but 11 regular-season games. Now with a surgery to repair a torn labrum in November of 2015 and another to correct biceps tendinitis in August behind him, the latest attempt to build up enough strength in his surgically repaired shoulder is progressing.
Brantley said on Friday that he’s currently hitting off a tee three times a day, about 40-50 swings in succession. So far, so good. Though he and the club have been in this spot before.
“I’m happy with where I’m at,” Brantley said. “I still understand that there’s hurdles in the process to go and I look forward to tackling them. It’s one step at a time. I’m not looking too far ahead. I want to make sure I stay on course and do everything I can the right way to get back as soon as possible.”
Like last year, a definite timetable hasn’t been put into place. The belief is that Brantley will be in line with other hitters at the beginning of spring training, but nothing has been “set in stone.” Position players have to report to camp by Feb. 16.
“That all depends on where I’m at in the progression,” Brantley said. “Spring training is still a couple weeks away for us to even report, so I’ve got to make sure the next week goes well, the week after that, and then we’ll make a decision from there. So, I can’t say anything for another at least a couple weeks, so I know where I’m at hitting wise, progression wise, and in how I’m feeling.”
Brantley flew past his hitting progression milestones last spring. He, the club and the medical staff were positive about his eventual return to the lineup on multiple occasions. Despite the positivity, Brantley’s shoulder wouldn’t cooperate for long.
Indians manager Terry Francona said on Friday that it “confounded” the club.
“It’s been well documented that when he got into games, that’s when he ran into trouble, but I think he feels he’s making great progress,” Francona said. “You just gotta let it play itself out. There’s a program in place, he follows it to a T, and hopefully as he gets into games, we won’t run into that last hurdle. … I don’t know what else we could have done differently. Our medical people spent so much time trying to think, ‘What is the right thing with Michael?’”
Brantley’s return to the lineup would be a boon for the Indians, particularly combined with the addition of slugger Edwin Encarnacion. The Indians were second in the American League with 777 runs scored in 2016 and now have the potential to add Encarnacion, one of the top hitters in the game and Brantley, one of the better left fielders in baseball when healthy, to the middle of the lineup.
The Indians’ addition of Encarnacion was a costly, aggressive move to add some muscle to the middle of the lineup. That could only be half of the equation. The other half, though, all rides on Brantley’s health.
Despite last year’s frustrations, he wouldn’t change anything.
“Of course I’ve thought about it, but absolutely not,” Brantley said. “I did everything in my power to get back. Strengthening wise, medical wise, anything I could do. It just didn’t work out. It’s something that I learned from and I’ll only get better for it, and it’ll only make me hungrier to get back out there. I cant wait to do it.”
Brantley and his injured shoulder are on the offensive again.
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanLewisABJ