CLEVELAND -- While José Ramírez remains weeks away from rejoining the Guardians’ lineup, he’s coming along well in his recovery from left hamate fracture surgery.
Ramírez had the stitches removed from his hand on Tuesday. He’s feeling good and soon could begin to swing a bat as a next step in his rehab process. The 33-year-old previously was able to resume gripping a bat and has been working out while sidelined.
Ramírez has been doing fielding drills and throwing at 140 feet. The third baseman called a few reporters over to his locker during pregame availability on Tuesday to show video of him going through drills.
Ramírez fractured his left hamate in the Guardians’ 3-1 win over the Tigers on June 13. He went on the 10-day injured list the next day, before undergoing surgery on June 16. After his procedure, Cleveland noted he is expected to miss five to seven weeks.
“We're still looking at the five-to-seven-week window,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said Tuesday. “Today's the step where he gets the stitches out.”
Tuesday marked exactly two weeks since Ramírez underwent surgery. That would put him anywhere from three to five weeks away from coming off the IL, assuming he has no issues in his recovery in the coming weeks.
The Guardians will obviously be thoughtful with how they proceed each step of this process, but certainly are looking forward to when their superstar is back in the fold.
Ramírez's numbers this season are down compared to his standard, though he still logged a .757 OPS with 18 doubles, 10 home runs, 33 RBIs and 24 stolen bases while appearing in each of the Guardians' first 72 games. Cleveland entered Tuesday with a 10-14 record in June, which included a 5-8 mark without Ramírez. The Guardians were 44-41 overall, one game behind the upstart White Sox (44-39) in the AL Central.
The Guardians’ record without Ramírez corresponds with a poor stretch of injury luck. Chase DeLauter (right rib cage fracture) and Angel Martínez (non-displaced left foot fracture) each were hurt on the same day as Ramírez.
DeLauter came off the IL on Saturday, but Martínez (whose 11 home runs lead the Guardians) is expected to miss several more weeks. He was given a timeline of four to six weeks.
Cleveland scored 45 runs in 13 games (an average of 3.46 per contest) since that trio initially got hurt.