Day two of pitcher and catcher workouts in Port Charlotte included the arrival of Kevin Kiermaier, Nick Franklin, Tim Beckham, Brad Miller, Dayron Varona and Dalton Kelly, bringing the number of Rays in camp to 61.
Wilson Ramos also arrived to camp and immediately worked out before addressing the media on the status of his surgically repaired torn right ACL.
Through team interpreter Wendi Tripp, Ramos addressed the speculation that he could be back as early as May, to serve as Tampa Bay’s designated hitter.
I don’t have an exact date for when I’m coming back ye. My knee is feeling pretty good. My knee is getting stronger day by day. I think the therapy is doing a really good job, and very important for that. Just to get back there as quickly as I can will be most important to me. That’s kind of the goal for right now.
…I’ve been working really hard toward that, But I don’t have any particular pressure that I have to be back right then. I really want to follow the therapy and the guide to getting back to healthy to the letter. So that way I’m 100 percent when I come back. I don’t want to push myself too far ahead and then fall back behind again. … I want to come back healthy, and that’s the goal.
Neither Erasmo Ramirez nor Jose De Leon threw their scheduled bullpens. Ramirez reportedly tweaked his left hamstring covering first base Tuesday during PFP drills, although it’s not believed to be serious. De Leon had his bullpen work pushed back because of mid-back tightness. Rays skipper Kevin Cash said both players could throw off a mound as early as Thursday.
Cash spoke about the minor setbacks to Ramirez and De Leon, as well as how impressed he was with the performance of pitchers Brad Boxberger and Shawn Tolleson.
The most random/entertaining tidbit of news out of Port Charlotte came courtesy of Neil Solondz (Rays Radio Blog), who wrote that Franklin, for a second straight off-season, spent part of the time as an Uber driver, doing so nine or ten times. Apparently he has a pretty high customer rating.
#Rays Franklin has driven for @Uber in past offseasons, said he was limited this year timewise but still has 4.8 rating
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) February 15, 2017
Finally, Colome grew tired of battling the wind, and gave up — throwing the second half of his bullpen session without his hat.
Alex Colome lost his lid in the wind during his bullpen session. #Rays #springtraining #MLB #baseball pic.twitter.com/dUCe8TVGME
— Will Vragovic (@willvrag) February 15, 2017