Spring Training

Orioles’ Mark Trumbo says his rehab could take a month, maybe more

SARASOTA, Fla.—Mark Trumbo knows that he won’t be able to start the season with the Orioles. After undergoing right knee surgery last September, Trumbo found that spring training wasn’t long enough to get him ready for the 2019 season.

“The realistic part of it is that I need more time,” Trumbo said. “I’d love to be out there, but if it’s not ready, it’s not ready.”

Trumbo was 2-for-12 (.167) with a walk in six Grapefruit League games.

“Once I got in game action in spring, it kind of flared up,” Trumbo said. “It never let down. That was a pretty good indicator that we’re not there yet. I can go out there and take at-bats, but it wasn’t a good version of me.

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“It just makes way more sense to get it right. I’ll go out there and do what I can. Playing at a disadvantage physically can really put you behind. We’ll take as much time as we need. Once I’m ready, I’ll be out there.”

Trumbo will back off baseball activities for now. He said that he would assess his condition weekly.

“It could be a month,” Trumbo said of his return. “It could be more than that. With this, I don’t know.”

Trumbo said the timeline for his return was nine-to-12 months.

“We’re 6 1/2, almost seven,” Trumbo said. “If I beat the timeline, that’s excellent, if I don’t, it’s not a letdown, it’s how long it takes.”

Entering spring training, Trumbo wasn’t sure if he could beat the doctors’ timetable.

“Best case, I would have hit the ground running,” Trumbo said. “No pain, no swelling, hit well and been ready to go. I knew that wasn’t probably likely.”

Trumbo will remain in Florida. After his rehab in Sarasota, he’ll need a rehab assignment.

“This injury is serious.,” Trumbo said. “It’s not to be taken likely, Being overaggressive isn’t the recipe, either.”

Rich Dubroff

Rich Dubroff grew up in Brooklyn as a fan of New York teams, but after he moved to Baltimore, quickly adopted the Orioles and Colts. After nearly two decades as a freelancer assisting on Orioles coverage for several outlets, principally The Capital in Annapolis and The Carroll County Times, Dubroff began covering the team fulltime in 2011. He spent five years at Comcast SportsNet’s website and for the last two seasons, wrote for PressBoxonline.com, Dubroff lives in Baltimore with his wife of more than 30 years, Susan.

View Comments

  • They should put him on the 60 day IL. That serves a couple of purposes. It opens a 40 man roster space but more importantly it takes the pressure off him to return too early. If he can't come back before 60 days then it is more likely he will take the time needed to be fully recovered. since the doctors said 9-12 months and he is not quite at 7 months. It just makes sense.

    • We don’t need trumbo at all to be honest with you. I’d prefer to see Mancini DH or play 1B. And have some combo of Stewart/ Santander/Diaz/Hays take the reigns in the corners. Mancini doesn’t belong there. The best thing we could hope for Trumbo is that he comes back and hits.. But even if he does that I don’t see us getting much in a trade besides ownership saving salary in return.....If we finally cut bait on the CD train I’m all for having Trumbo back as he’s a significantly better ball player at this point. But neither are part of the next competitive orioles club and they’re going to be blocking guys who might be real soon.

  • Don’t get it Chance Sisco was just optioned to Norfolk. I guess our future is not ready and we will go will Vets and rule 5 guys. The team we will start with looks like castoffs and mediocre vets.

    • The Sisco move pisses me off. We know what sucre is. You want to keep one defensive minded catcher that’s fine. Keep sucre or Severino but don’t give me this crap that we should keep both. They’re manipulating sisco’a service time. I typically don’t have a problem with that but this guy has been in the big leagues and this would be the third go round in Norfolk. All we’ve heard is praise for his improved defense. The bat is clearly working, why are you sending him down? I have an inkling come July when we successfully have gained that extra year of control he’ll be ready.

      Diaz, Hays and Mountcastle are all a different story. They have no ABS in AAA and clearly have things to work on. I completely agree with sending them down. Even if I believed that they were all ready today I wouldn’t have a problem sending them down for the extra year of control. But sisco? Cmon. Play the guy.

    • The two best hitters in Spring Hays and Sisco and the best pitcher Phillips will be playing at Norfolk and we get to see castoffs replace them

    • I think it is becoming obvious that Elias is TANKING as Houston did (3 years of 106+ losses).
      It is harder to intentionally lose if you have talented young players on the team.

      • I don’t think adding sisco to this horrible team is going to move the needle. It’s more about developing him properly. Nothing will change the fact that we’re throwing out AAA caliber arms in our 4 and 5 slot in the rotation. And Cashner isn’t really any better.’q

  • All the best bats have been sent down. The lineup is uninspiring. Norfolk or Bowie may be better teams. I think this was the strategy all along, get the young guns more work in minors, keep a bunch of placeholders for beginning of the year. Trade what they can in the first half, and let the future start to trickle up in the 2nd half.

    • Yes all the best bats were sent down. Our spring training team which competed is a much better and more exciting team then who we are taking north.

    • But Hyde and the Orioles coaches were hired because they are so good at developing young players? And we were going to have a "competition" for spots in spring training?
      I think it is obvious that Elias lies like a rug.

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