TORONTO – A visit to Dr. James Andrews earlier this week confirmed the Toronto Blue Jays diagnosis of a bone bruise for Michael Saunders, who will need about six weeks to heal up and allow his body to adjust to the loss of meniscus in his surgically repaired left knee.
The outfielder, on the disabled list since May 10, rejoined his teammates Wednesday to continue his current rest period. An exact timeline for his return will depend on how quickly the bone bruise in his knee – suffered before he landed on the DL – disappears.
"The toughest thing is hearing it’s going to take time," Saunders said. "I’d much rather have an exact sort of date but knowing it will get better and my season isn’t over is great. My body will get back to 100 percent and I’m already going to be going on Week 2 here over the weekend, start ramping up some activity in my lower half but kind of wean my way back in. We’ve got to make sure we get over this mountain before really ramping up activity so that way it won’t come back."
General manager Alex Anthopoulos revealed the shutdown period for Saunders last week in Houston and said at the time Saunders would visit Dr. Andrews just in case.
Saunders returned to the disabled list since after going 0-for-4 in a 7-1 win over Boston on May 9. It was his first game back after having fluid from his knee drained and a cortisone shot to try and ease swelling and pain that limited his mobility.
But really, he’s struggled with issues in his knee since returning from his first stint on the DL in late April.
"I finished my rehab just fine and my knee felt great, like nothing had happened," said Saunders. "The second game in Tampa it swelled up on me a little bit, but that’s all it was, swollen and stiff, there was absolutely no pain, played through Boston, played through Cleveland, and the last two games in Cleveland got pretty uncomfortable. That’s when we came back here and drained it, laid off it a little bit, hoping in time it would be fine. Got back out there for that game against Boston, and it got better after we drained it, but it was still pretty uncomfortable."
Saunders had about 60 percent of the meniscus removed from his left knee in spring training when he stepped awkwardly on a practice-field soft spot. Once he completes two weeks of total rest, he’ll progress to the exercise bike, lower body activities to work the muscles around knee, careful to still allow the area to heal.
"We’ll be doing baseball activities before (six weeks) I hope," said Saunders. "It’s all going to be seeing how I do when we pick up activity and I ramp that up. We’re going to wean myself into it, we’re going to start on the AlterG (treadmill), load-bearing exercises, stay away from those, and work my way into running. It’s not going to be gung ho and get on the bases right away just to test it out. We’re trying to nip this thing right now and not have any setbacks."
—
REYES REHAB: The Blue Jays are tentatively expecting to activate shortstop Jose Reyes from the disabled list Monday in time for the opener of next week’s three-game series with the Chicago White Sox.
Reyes begins his rehabilitation assignment with the triple-A Buffalo Bisons on Thursday, and one of the reasons the Blue Jays plan to give him three games is to make sure once he’s back at game-speed he doesn’t tweak his oblique strain and cracked rib, and need to restart his DL clock.
"If he needs a couple more days then he’s still in good shape, that’s a big part of it, too," said manager John Gibbons. "But yeah, he (also) needs to see some live pitching."
