The loudest whispered question at St. Louis Cardinals spring training concerns Tommy Edman and whether the super utility-turned-centerfielder lineup fixture will be ready for opening day.
Unable yet to make contact with a pitched ball as he goes through the progression of his rehabilitation, his uncertain readiness stands as the first real potential turning point for a roster which is otherwise fairly straightforward to predict.
Soreness lingered in Edman’s wrist throughout last season until a sharp pain felt during batting practice in Miami saw him placed on the injured list on July 7. He would return to action on August 1 but was clearly encumbered as the season wore on; in 111 plate appearances over the season’s last month, he managed only one home run and four doubles.
Edman then sought surgery soon after the conclusion of the season, though the team did not acknowledge the procedure until January and has not yet clarified precisely what kind of surgery was conducted. At Winter Warm-Up, prior to signing a contract extension which avoided arbitration this year and next, Edman said he “didn’t want to get too much into the specifics of” the surgery, but that it was designed to remedy “damage to the cartilage and the wrist bones.”
President of baseball operations John Mozeliak called the surgery “pretty benign,” but several months later, Edman is sporting an angry red scar which runs roughly from his wrist to the midpoint of his forearm and is limited to hitting off a tee, sometimes only with one hand, on alternating days.
“We’ll see how he progresses,” manager Oliver Marmol said Thursday. “I mean, we’ve yet to play games. We’re just getting started. We’ll see how he reacts to the next couple weeks of his progression that [head trainer Adam Olsen] and the guys have for him, and then we’ll see where we’re at at that point.”
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