NEWSLETTER
UPDATE: Cubs GM Carter Hawkins put a bit of a timeline on the rehab for Brennen Davis, and it’s blowing my mind.
From Hawkins, who appeared today on 670 the Score:
“We’re hoping that we’re going to get him back in some games in August,” Hawkins said. “It’s kind of a unique situation with him, had some odd back issues early on in the season, wasn’t playing quite as well as we hoped. We couldn’t quite figure out what it was. It turned out to be a non-structural issue on his back. Now, he had to have surgery, which anytime you have any type of surgery, that’s serious. But it was a lot less serious than we initially had feared. So we’re hopeful to get him back in games. He’s already out in Arizona starting some baseball activity. So we’ll get him some games in August and then think about what we can do this offseason, whether it be something like a fall league or winter ball, just to get those at-bats back. But he’s progressing well.”
Potentially in GAME action in AUGUST? After JUNE back surgery? That is just incredible news, and all the more confirmation that the procedure really did wind up not being as dramatic as feared.
Will Davis be able to perform at a high level right out of the gate if he does get into games in August? No reason to count on it, given the nature of the injury and the time away. But what matters is just getting him the at bats. Getting him into a place where he can attack the offseason with some actual things to work on.
Damn you, Carter! You just got me really hopeful!
*original post follows*
I will absolutely take any Brennen Davis updates right now, because we already know we’re going to be without the Cubs’ number one prospect for a very long time following back surgery.
But how long, that’s the question no one could really answer for sure when he actually had the procedure back in early June. We might be a little closer to an answer:
As Tommy Birch reports, Davis is already set to begin running next week, and he may ramp up to baseball activities “shortly after.”
You’ll have to excuse me if I steady myself for a moment.
OK. So I am going to continue assuming that Davis will miss the rest of the regular season and merely hope that he could play in fall ball or winter ball to make up some at bats. I think expecting more than that is just too much when you’re talking about back surgery and a desire to be OVERLY cautious with a top prospect.
However, let’s just game it out. If Davis were starting to run next week, and if his running progression took three or four weeks, he could be doing baseball activities in early August. And if he needed, say, a month of baseball activities and ramping up to be ready for game action, then you’d be talking about him potentially being game-ready when there are still more than three weeks left in the Triple-A season. You’ll note that Sahadev Sharma wrote this just yesterday: “The team avoided a worst-case scenario and is still holding out hope he could return late in the Triple-A season …. “
Again, I think that all just screams “way too optimistic!,” but the update is the update. I just didn’t expect Davis to begin a running ramp up less than a month after back surgery (though let’s remember, the Cubs did say the diagnosis and the procedure all went “best case scenario”). So this is definitely encouraging stuff, even if it only notches up the possibility that Brennen Davis can play in fall/winter ball.
