Rehabbing Price: Elbow 'best it's been'

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- After completing a short throwing session for the third straight day, Red Sox left-hander David Price said he was surprised with how good his sore elbow felt.
After meeting with team trainers to discuss his progress as he works through the minor flareup, the former American League Cy Young Award winner threw in the batting cage again on Monday morning at the team's training complex in Fort Myers, Fla.
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With a close-to-normal range of motion and the inflammation gone, Price said his elbow is the "best it's been."
"It feels good. It's been getting better every day," Price said. "Kind of surprised that it's responded the way that it has. If you asked me a week ago, I'd have said I felt OK. And I feel really good right now. Today is the best it's felt. Just everyday activities.
"I don't feel anything in there right now. So that's coming after two straight days of throwing baseballs into the net, so it's responded really well."
Manager John Farrell said before Boston's game against the Blue Jays that the plan is to maintain the current program that Price is on since he is not yet ready to get on a mound. Price will continue throwing on flat ground, making 25 throws at 50 to 60 feet to get his arm moving before eventually easing back to normal long-toss activities.
"I don't know when we'll look to increase the distance, volume, intensity -- all that," Farrell said. "[Price is] kind of in this early phase of the main thrust to see all of the rehab and the strengthening, yet getting his arm moving with some light throwing."
Dealing with arm stiffness is not uncommon to Price. The 31-year-old said he experienced it several times during the spring since coming into the league with the Rays nearly a decade ago. But this time was more worrisome, which led to the decision to consult with Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Neal ElAttrache.
"Oh, they said if I was 22 or 23, they'd tell me to go have surgery, absolutely," Price said. "I've gone through this. This is something I feel like happens every Spring Training. It's those first four to five weeks of Spring Training that I feel like I go through this every single year. This year was just a little bit worse. My arm got a little bit more stiff, and that's why we took the precautionary actions that we took.
"That was the right thing to do. It doesn't matter if it sends up red flags, whatever it is. Whenever it's dealing with something like that, you want to know what's going on in there. That's what we did."
Although the process has sometimes been a test of Price's patience, he understands the need to take it easy in order to avoid any significant setbacks.
"I'm not a good guy for the [disabled list]," Price said. "I'll go stir-crazy. I've got too much energy kind of sitting there.
"I'm learning some good values on patience right now. It's tough."