The return of Aramis Ramirez could happen before the end of next week. Or maybe not.
Manager Lou Piniella said Ramirez, out since May 9 with a dislocated left shoulder, would start taking live batting practice as soon as the next three days in Detroit.
“I don’t know yet,” Ramirez said. “I don’t know where Lou got that from. But I’m getting close. I just don’t have a day yet.”
Well, what’s a day here or there when Ramirez has missed 48 of them?
Ramirez has gone from dry swings with a light fungo bat to real swings with his real bat in soft-toss drills. The next step, live batting practice, should come on this road trip to Detroit and the South Side. Maybe. And then comes a minor-league rehab stint of a few days.
After taking swings, Ramirez is sure about one thing concerning the pain:
“It’s going to be there for a while. It’s getting better, but it’s going to be there.
“When I start playing, it will still be there. It can’t go away in two months; maybe [during] the off-season.”
Ramirez said he had no trouble extending the left arm while taking ground balls, but the left arm to a right-handed swinger is perhaps the most important piece. It drives the ball and extends the bat.
Meanwhile, the Cubs remain short-handed in the infield, even with Jake Fox being able to fill in at third base on occasion.
Shortstop Ryan Theriot and third base fill-in Mike Fontenot have suffered most from lack of rest. Theriot has started 63 of the Cubs’ 66 games.
“Once we get Ramirez back, it will be much easier to rest the infield,” Piniella said. “We have a little more depth in the outfield than we do in the infield.
“Once we get Ramirez back, it’s easy for me to put [Andres] Blanco at shortstop and move Fontenot to second.”
