ARLINGTON, Texas – They are two friends going in opposite directions in their recovery from injury.
Marcus Stroman, coming off a 40-pitch simulated game Monday, is scheduled to throw 55 pitches in another session Friday before, barring setbacks, the Toronto Blue Jays send him off somewhere on a rehabilitation assignment.
Devon Travis on Tuesday visited specialist Dr. Keith Meister in Arlington who prescribed more rest for the second baseman’s ailing left shoulder and then injected him with cortisone in the hopes of speeding the process.
The latter hopes soon to be more like the former.
“He looks great down there, he looks like the Marcus Stroman that everyone has always seen,” Travis said in the visiting clubhouse at Globe Life Park, buoyant to be back with his teammates, even if only from a brief respite from the drudgery of rehab in Dunedin, Fla. “I’m sure you’ve seen the tweets, he lets everyone know, and he’s honest, he looks great and he doesn’t look like he’s lost a step. He’s a freak. He talks a lot but it’s the truth, he means it, it’s what keeps him driven. I think he can go out there and get it done right now.”
And for Travis at this time?
“It sucks,” he replied. “I’m not envying Marcus, but seeing him, and he’s about to come back and help this ball club, that’s exciting stuff. I’m pumped for him. He’s always motivating me, comes in every morning, ‘Hey man, let’s go, got to get you going.’”
Time is running out for that to happen.
Travis, who hasn’t played since re-aggravating his shoulder July 28, still isn’t well enough to begin baseball activities and won’t be able to until his shoulder is symptom-free. Given the length of his absence, he’ll need some at-bats before returning, but there needs to be a physical buildup first.
Factor in that the minor-league seasons end Sept. 6-7 – single-A Lansing is one Blue Jays affiliate headed to the playoffs so that means a brief extension – and it’s hard to see how he’ll return to action this year.
“I’m not going to write it off, but he’s not making enough progress right now,” said manager John Gibbons. “Probably eliminate that thought, and then if somehow he comes back, maybe it will be like Stroman or something.”
Understandably, Travis isn’t ready to give up.
“Man, I don’t know, I have no clue, I don’t think we’ve gotten that far,” he said. “I’m just praying I wake up the next day, or the next day, or the next day and feel – I just want to feel better. …
“It needs time to heal and that’s exactly what I don’t have,” he added later. “I’m just waiting for that day to wake up and I go, ‘Man, I’ve turned the corner today, I feel much better.’ It hasn’t quite happened yet. Hopefully sometime soon.”
Stroman, meanwhile, is “picking up steam, moving in the right direction,” said Gibbons.
Where he heads out on rehab is up in the air, how many games he gets in is another question and nothing is certain at that point, the process and timeline changing outing to outing.
Really, the Blue Jays can’t plan too far ahead because if he feels the slightest bit of unusual soreness in his knee he’ll be shut down. Or maybe Stroman gets into a rehab outing and struggles, or maybe he’s just OK.
At that point, things get complicated.
Regardless, Stroman keeps pushing to try and hasten his return for the springtime knee injury that was a big blow for the team.
“Nothing’s going to happen unless the doctors sign off on it,” said Gibbons. “To this point they feel pretty good about it.”
As for Travis, Gibbons feels second base is in good hands with Ryan Goins and Cliff Pennington, although neither is likely to have the same impact as Travis.
“They’re both playing really good defence, throwing in some hits, things like that,” said Gibbons. “Devon was huge for us, he stepped right in as a rookie, one of the top rookies in the game, shoot, he was hitting three bills for us, driving the ball, doing a lot of good things, playing good defence. That’s a kick in the gut.”
