CLEVELAND — Cleveland Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor continues to work his way back into playing shape after suffering a right calf strain during workouts while readying himself for the start of spring training last month.
After two-plus weeks of rehabilitation, Lindor has progressed into individual baseball activities in Goodyear, Arizona.
“The day before (yesterday), he started taking ground balls, hitting in the cage, tracking balls off pitchers, bunting,” Indians manager Terry Francona ahead of Tuesday’s spring-training game against a split-squad from the Chicago White Sox.
“He’s had pretty full days. He’ll continue his build up. It seems like every day, the trainers give him a little bit more.”
After suffering the calf strain in a workout in Orlando, Lindor was evaluated by Indians medical personnel in Cleveland last month, and it was determined that he would be able to return to game activity in seven to nine weeks.
Although not wanting to put pressure on Lindor to come back too soon, Francona remains confident that his all-star shortstop will return sooner than the seven-to-nine-week timetable originally given by Indians medical personnel.
“He’s doing great,” Francona said earlier in the week. “He’s actually progressing really quick, and that’s not a surprise. He’s young. He’s strong. He’s willing. He’s kind of the easy guy to bet on the under.”
Last season, Lindor led the Indians with 183 hits and 42 doubles, was tied for third in triples, third in runs batted in and second with 38 home runs. Lindor set a club record for lead-off home runs, as he started nine games with round-trippers in 2018.
Through 574 games over his first four years with the Indians, Lindor collected 665 hits, including 138 doubles, 13 triples and 98 home runs, with 310 runs batted in, 377 runs scored and 214 walks drawn against 357 strikeouts.
Additionally, Lindor stole 71 bases in 91 attempts.
A three-time American League All-Star infielder, Lindor has a .288 career batting average with .350 on-base, .487 slugging and .837 on-base-plus-slugging percentages.
Although Lindor is said to be progressing well, Francona does not yet know if he will be ready for opening day against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis on March 28.
“I think I’ll have a better answer in about three weeks, when we get to like the 20th of March and we know where Frankie is,” Francona said.
“That’s my best answer right now. We’ll have a lot better feel for where he is physically, and you start figuring out, ‘Hey, how do we do this the best? If he’s not with us to start the season, how do we best tackle this? How do we put ourselves in the best position?’”