TAMPA — Derek Jeter walked into the Yankees’ minor league complex yesterday morning showing no signs his recovery from ankle surgery had been set back by three months on Thursday. The shortstop wore sneakers and didn’t limp — and he also didn’t want to go into detail about the new small fracture in his surgically repaired left ankle.
When asked if he was disappointed by the news, Jeter only said, “Of course” and added he would discuss the injury further when he returns to The Bronx on Thursday, after another trip to Charlotte to see his operating surgeon, Dr. Robert Anderson.
Curtis Granderson, also rehabbing from his fractured right wrist at the complex, talked to Jeter and was relieved to know why the recovery was going so slowly.
“We didn’t talk too much about the obvious, but at least now you know what’s going on,” Granderson said. “As bad as it sounds, now he understands why he had issues there. You can address it and go forward. It can kind of be a relief, even if it’s not the best bit of information.”
Jeter isn’t expected back until after the All-Star break. General manager Brian Cashman said Thursday he was told “95 percent” of people are fine after setbacks such as Jeter’s.
“As long as it’s non-displaced, it should heal fine,” said Dr. James Gladstone, sports medicine specialist and co-chief of sports medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai. “These injuries can be stress-related. Even though the bone had healed, the tendons surrounding it hadn’t been worked in a long time. That can lead to something like this.”
* Granderson began swinging with a fungo bat Thursday and hopes to at least pick up a real bat today.
“I felt fine when I swung the fungo,” he said. “As long as my wrist stays stiff, there’s no problem.”
If the weight of Granderson’s usual bat doesn’t bother him, he thinks it won’t be long before he’ll be hitting off a tee.
* CC Sabathia isn’t the only power pitcher in the organization who is preparing himself for a new reality. Chien-Ming Wang was scheduled to make his first start for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last night, but the game was rained out. Like Sabathia, Wang’s velocity is down from when he was a top pitcher in the American League.
“All my pitches still have the same movement,’’ Wang said before he left Tampa. “I just have to use more control because instead of 94, 95 [mph], I throw 89, 90.”
He has a lot to prove before he becomes a realistic option for the Yankees’ rotation.
“I don’t think that much into the future,” said Wang, who added he feels fine physically after battling foot and shoulder injuries. “I just have to try to make it happen.”
* Last year’s top pick, Ty Hensley is recovering from hip surgery and expects to be a better pitcher than he was before when he returns.
“The [impingement] prevented me from having hip rotation when I pitched,” Hensley said. “I had literally zero hip rotation. I’m kind of excited to see what it’s going to be like when I come back.”
Doctors discovered the hip problem when Hensley suffered repeated abdominal strains.
“I watched my mechanics once after having the surgery, just to see what it looked like and I’m never going to watch it again,” said Hensley, whose signing bonus was decreased from $1.6 million to $1.2 million when a shoulder abnormality was found after he was drafted. “My hip is fine and the shoulder is fine. I’m not concerned about either.”