Michael has been away from the club since June 15, when his wife gave birth to their newest baby, a boy named Maxwell. he was placed on the Paternity List on June 16 and was supposed to return to the team on June 19.
well, Michael did return on June 19, in a sense. he met up with the Tribe in Baltimore, but was placed on the 10-Day DL with a right ankle sprain (backdated to June 16), which stemmed from an injury he sustained in Kansas City while playing the Royals. however, it's not completely clear if his ankle never stopped barking after the initial sprain on May 7, or if he re-injured the ankle during the early June Kansas City series. if you read my aforementioned DL blog, then you understand the confusion. not only that, but on June 23, there was some conflicting information as to
which ankle was actually sprained. facepalm. i've never seen so many differing stories about an injury in my life. we may never know the truth.😞
DL Updates (June 21-26)
i of course kept track of all the ankle updates throughout Michael's time on the disabled list. there aren't many, but here's what i got:
June 21: during the Indians game against the Baltimore Orioles, WTAM 1100 radio broadcaster Tom Hamilton told listeners that Michael's ankle was doing much better.
June 22: Mandy Bell, filling in for Jordan Bastian, provided an update on Michael in her article on indians.com. she wrote that Michael took batting practice with the Indians before the game and was scheduled to do some running on Friday [June 23]. also, because his DL stint is going to be brief, Michael would not require a rehab assignment.
"once he starts running, he knows he's going to go quick," Terry Francona divulged in Paul Hoynes' cleveland.com article. "so he's trying to give himself a chance to feel as good as he can before he starts ramping it up."
here's a picture of Michael in the dugout with Erik Gonzalez during the top of the 8th inning in the game against the Orioles:
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| photo courtesy of @SportsTimeOhio on twitter |
talk about chomping at the bit to get back lol
June 23: Tito relayed the latest news on Michael in his media session. according to Bastian's blog on bastian.mlblogs.com, "he was going to go run out, but it's wet. he's going to go run on the treadmill. he thinks he's feeling pretty good, but that will be his first kind of getting aggressive on the running. then dependent on how he feels, hopefully we'll do more tomorrow."
at one point in the game versus the Minnesota Twins, Jim Rosenhaus gave the Elk & Elk injury report on WTAM 1100, and he stated that Michael was on the DL because of his left ankle. was that a mistake, or is it really his left ankle that was injured [in June]? an article in the morning from Hoynsie noted that Michael was on the DL due to a left ankle injury, too. when i read that, i assumed it was an error. but for two people to claim that in the same day, it had me wondering...
June 24: in the afternoon, Bastian tweeted that Michael was scheduled to run on the treadmill again. then later, Bastian supplied further information from the manager's pregame presser in his blog on bastian.mlblogs.com. "it's the same thing today. in fact, i think he was just doing it in a couple minutes. he's just kind of starting. he'll do that again today and then we'll just see where that leads. he's a lot better. i don't think he's ready to do [certain baseball activities]. that's why we kept him in there."
i also saw Michael taking BP on the field when the gates opened before the game versus the Twins because i went to Cleveland to see it.
June 25: T.J. Zuppe posted on twitter that Michael was doing some running drills in the outfield before the noon hour.
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| photo courtesy of @Indians on twitter |
then in the midst of the Twins vs. Indians game, Bastian's bastian.mlblogs.com blog went up. in it, Francona addressed how Michael was doing and when he might be activated from the DL. "after yesterday, Brant actually had such a good day, he took it to the field," the skipper informed reporters before the 1 pm game. "i remember i was telling you guys he was going to be on the treadmill. they ended up taking him outside, which was really good. today, he's going to go out and do some cutting--things like that. and, if that progresses well, tomorrow he would base run. and that's the last step, so as long as he keeps progressing, he will come off soon. very soon."
June 26: the Indians twitter account announced that Michael has been activated from the 10-Day DL!😁 on the contrary, he is not in tonight's starting lineup versus the Texas Rangers.😞 per Francona via Bastian, Michael is available off the bench and went through baserunning drills for his final rehab test. Hoynsie's tweet revealed that the Indians felt Michael needed one more day of hard work before starting him.
Tito explained the decision when meeting with the media in his afternoon session, which John Alfes recorded and uploaded to his youtube channel. "Brant is back on and he'll be on the bench tonight. the reason behind that is he still needed to have a pretty impactful day, run the bases. and it started at like 3:30, i don't know how fair that is to him. as much as you'd like to always have him in the lineup, hate to have him be down for two weeks, play tonight and then tomorrow be sore. so we'll have him available to pinch hit or whatever, and then he'll play tomorrow."
fingers crossed all Michael's ankle problems will now be done and over with.🤞
for stats and all the rest of the news that is disclosed about Michael this season, follow me on twitter @clevelandgirl23. and if you want to join my subscription list, simply enter your email address in the box underneath the Blog Archive sidebar over on the right side of this page to receive notifications whenever i post something new.
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