SARASOTA, FLA. ā Orioles slugger Mark Trumbo, who has spent the past six months rehabilitating a surgically repaired knee, is scheduled to make his first exhibition appearance of the spring Wednesday against the Toronto Blue Jays at Ed Smith Stadium.
Trumbo will appear as a designated hitter. He has done every baseball activity during the final weeks of his rehab program and said two days of base-running drills have left him with no other way to test the knee other than to play.
āThereās not really anything left, but going out there and getting in the game,āā he said Tuesday.
Trumbo said playing defense is still in the future, but heās been eager to join in what he feels has been an impressive exhibition season so far by his young Orioles teammates.
āItāll be nice to get the at-bats and run the bases, especially on a ground ball or something,āā he said. āUnder game stress, it can be a little bit more than anything you can simulate sometimes, so Iām excited to get out there.
āHealth-wise, weāve done as much as we can. At some point, youāre just going to have to get out there and see what youāve got. There are no further hurdles that would be any better indicators than game action. So weāll see. If it responds like it has so far, we should be good to go, weāll keep rolling. If it doesnāt, then weāll deal with it.ā
Trumbo has taken a lot of live batting practice from some of the Oriolesā best pitchers, so itās not like heās going out there cold. But with less than two weeks left of the Grapefruit League schedule, time is growing short.
āSo far, itās been a pretty decent spring training from that standpoint,āā he said. āI havenāt been limited at all. I got to face Alex [Cobb] and probably took five at-bats against him. I took some against Jimmy [Yacabonis], [Andrew Cashner], Dylan [Bundy]. These are all quality pitchers who can give you a better look than any kind of batting practice.
āI think I should probably have a decent number of at-bats already, depending on how you look at it.ā
But does Trumbo have enough time to be on the Opening Day roster instead of the disabled list?
āThatās what we got,āā he said. āIdeally, a bit more would be great, but Iām just happy that we have some [time] to work with.ā
Trumbo is not scheduled to play defense yet, but manager Brandon Hyde said that would not necessarily keep him off the Opening Day roster.
āIf he can break [camp] with us as the DH, that would be great,ā Hyde said, ābut Iām not relying on it ⦠I donāt think he needs to take ground balls to make the Opening Day roster. I just want him to be healthy and he can hit and his knee feels good, weāll consider it at that time.ā
Though Trumbo speculated that he might play again Thursday, Hyde said he will get that day off before returning to the exhibition lineup.
āNo, heāll get a day off after tomorrow,ā Hyde said. āWeāre going to give him a couple at-bats tomorrow and hopefully he comes out of the game feeling great and then kind of reassess from there his schedule for the next two weeks.ā
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The Oriolesā other veteran first baseman, Chris Davis, will return to the exhibition lineup Tuesday night against the New York Yankees at Steinbrenner Field. He has not played in a game since March 3.