With Sean Rodriguez and Micah Johnson progressing steadily in surgery rehab, the Braves could have the stronger bench they envisioned by season’s end.
They could also have a potential second-base replacement in either of them – Johnson is farther along in rehab — if Brandon Phillips is traded before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, although prospect Ozzie Albies is the presumed leading candidate to take over that spot unless the Braves decide he’s not quite ready.
Regardless of how they’re used, Rodriguez and Johnson would be welcome additions for the Braves at some point after the All-Star break.
Johnson, a second baseman acquired in a January trade from the Dodgers, impressed during the first month of spring training with his speed, line-drive power and how quickly he adapted to playing in the outfield. The 26-year-old was competing for a bench job before breaking his left wrist making a spectacular diving catch near the left-field line in a Grapefruit League game.
He was antsy to get going during the mandatory down time when he couldn’t use his wrist, and now Johnson is feeling good, mentally and physically. He has regained his strength in the wrist and his upper body after being forced to wear a sling for an extended period after surgery. This week began to increase the intensity of his batting-cage sessions, moving from hitting balls off tee to hitting soft-tossed or pleased to be moving closer to a rehab assignment.
“I watched him in the cage and he was turning it loose,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said Monday. “And Sean’s doing really well; he’s doing the defensive drills, he’s swinging. So they’re both coming around really good.”
Johnson is closer to returning and could begin a minor league rehab assignment before much longer. He’ll first go to the Braves’ minor league training camp outside Orlando and progress toward live batting practice and playing in some intrasquad games.
“More than likely he’ll go to Orlando when we leave town and then kind of amp it up from there,” Snitker said. “But yeah, I would say not too (much longer). Watching him swing in there, it looked pretty good, really. And it’ll probably be a good time (to go to Orlando) because I would imagine they’ll have some live BPs and stuff like that going on now that mini camp starts today.”
But the greater impact on the Braves would come from the return of Rodriguez, who has been with the team on all its homestands this season and has bulked up considerably with muscle since he first showed up at spring training after his surgery, his arm and shoulder in a sling and his body noticeably thinner than he looked last season when he was having a career season for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“He’s swinging and doing the defensive stuff,” Snitker said. “He looks really good, too.”
Snitker added, “I know there’s probably for the body to heal there’s a timetable, when he’s ready. An injury like that, it’s like a Tommy John guy, they say they feel really good and they’re at their weakest at that point. So I’m sure there’s a timetable for him more than what he’s doing. But he looks really good and doing everything, strong.
“Still just doing cage work, soft toss, neither he nor Micah are out on the field. But I saw (a Braves physical therapist) in there kind of short-screen throwing to Sean today. So it’s amping it up pretty good, it’s not holding back.”
Rodriguez, 32, was a big free-agent signee for the Braves in November and was penciled in to serve as their starting second baseman to begin the season and eventually move into a super-utility role once Albies was ready. He signed a two-year, $11.5 million contract after setting career bests last season in average (.270), home runs (18), RBIs (56), OBP (.349), slugging percentage (.510) and games played (140) for the Pirates.
But all that changed when Rodriguez, his wife and two of their children were involved in a terrifying car crash in Miami on Jan. 28, when a stolen police cruiser ran through a red light and smashed the SUV they were driving, sending Rodriguez’s wife and two sons to hospital. It was only later that the severity of Rodriguez’s own injury was discovered, and just before spring he had surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and other damage to his non-throwing shoulder.
The Braves traded for Brandon Phillips a few days before spring training to replace Rodriguez at second base, and it was initially believed the injury and surgery would sideline him the entire season. But Rodriguez vowed to make it back as fast as possible, and he moved his family to Atlanta and has worked out daily at SunTrust Park with Braves physical therapists, progressing to the point where he’s been throwing and fielding ground balls for weeks and recently began hitting in the batting cage.
While there’s no timetable for his return, it looks more likely by the day that Rodriguez will play for the Braves at some point in the second half of the season, possibly before September.
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