WASHINGTON D.C.- Mark Teixeira is hoping to get the cast removed from his right wrist when he visits the doctor Monday, but admitted he won’t know what his future holds for a bit longer.
“May 1 is eight weeks,” Teixeira said after doing one-handed hitting and fielding drills at Nationals Park Friday. “We’ll see how it goes. We have a few milestones I’ve got to hit.”
If he doesn’t have any problems Monday, he plans on strengthening his wrist for a week before picking up a bat. Then he will see if his wrist is pain-free when he takes normal swings.
“If it’s 10 weeks and I can’t swing, I have to look at surgery,’’ Teixeira said. “If it’s still hurt, you’ve got to take care of it. But I’m not even worrying about it. My goal in eight weeks is to be on the field, with the Yankees.”
GM Brian Cashman isn’t ready to make any predictions.
“We can’t tell anything about the wrist,” Cashman said. “It’s way too early… Those wrists are very, very tricky.”
Teixeira is in the process of figuring out with hitting coach Kevin Long just how many swings he should take, since he believes he may need to cut back even when he’s healthy again.
“We talked about what the progression is gonna be,” Teixeira said. “A normal day during the season is 60-80 swings total. I might want to put that back to 40-60.”
**
Cashman said Derek Jeter isn’t expected to work out before Monday.
“Right now it’s rest and treatment,” Cashman said. “I don’t think he’s supposed to do anything til Monday at the earliest.”
The GM hopes the time off will allow Jeter to get rid of the soreness in his ankle and that he can “take two steps back so he can take a giant step forward.”
Jeter won’t be eligible to come off the disabled list until April 6 at the earliest.