DETROIT -- Robbie Ray is itching to get back -- but not for the reason you might think.

“I said [to Mariners teammates] that if they don’t start hitting better, I’m going to have to come back,” Ray said jokingly before Saturday’s game against the Tigers in his first media availability since undergoing Tommy John surgery and a left flexor tendon repair on May 3. “They’re going to need my bat in the lineup.”

Seattle seems to have taken Ray’s ribbing to heart, churning out nine runs in the series opener. Meeting the team for the series in Michigan, Ray emphasized that while he’s early in what will be a lengthy rehab process, he’s determined to take things day by day, grinding through an absence likely to last around 14-18 months.

“It’s going to get long, and it’s going to feel like some days, it’s just never going to get better,” Ray said. “But I think for me, it’s just reaching that next milestone. Having a milestone each week … it gives you something to look forward to.”

The decision to have surgery wasn’t as tough as it could have been. Ray has known pitchers who have struggled with the process, but he wasn’t one of them. When he met with doctors, there was no agonizing over the choice between rehab and surgery, and no need for a second opinion to further complicate the decision. Ray got the news cut and dry: “You need surgery.”

In the second season of a five-year, $115 million contract, Ray’s rehab process has barely gotten started. So far, he’s working mostly on wrist and hand movements, and has started gradually straightening his left arm.

“It’s definitely a little weird, having to have someone straighten your arm out,” he said. “But it’s going really well.”

While he works his way back, Ray is following the advice he’s gotten from fellow pitchers who have returned from lengthy surgeries: Enjoy the time with family.

“They’re not sick of me yet,” he said. “It’s nice, being able to take my kids to school, being able to pick them up, being able to hang out with them, stuff that you don’t get to do on a normal basis. It’s nice getting a glimpse into that for the next 14 months or so, getting to spend some quality time with them. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to. So I definitely am enjoying my family and my kids, being able to be around and watch them grow up.”

He’s enjoying his family. One thing he doesn’t plan to do, though, is spend any time coaching youth baseball.

“No, I’m not a coach,” he said. “I want to be dad.”