The surgery Tommy Edman had to alleviate pain in his right wrist that had bothered him for several seasons will delay how ready he is this season for spring training.
The Cardinals switch-hitter and their named center fielder will not be ready for batting practice or game-speed at-bats when the Cardinals open spring training in mid-February. He hopes to be cleared by the time exhibition games begin, though that is not guaranteed, and his goal is to be available and full strength by opening day in late March. Less than three months removed from surgery to address cartilage damage in his right (throwing) wrist, Edman has yet to swing a bat to contact a baseball, limited instead to dry swings.
“I’m very confident I’ll be ready for the season,†Edman said Monday at the team’s Winter Warm-up. “We’ll see what spring looks like. I think hitting will be the big step because there are so many steps that go along. You’ve got to tee and then soft toss and then BP and the machine and getting into games. Again, we’ll take that day by day, figure out each step as my wrist responds to each thing.â€
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Edman declined to detail the specifics of his surgery.
He first experience soreness in the wrist before the 2022 season and at times during it. It lingered into the winter between 2022 and 2023, and then, when the Cardinals were in Miami, Edman felt a “sharp pain†instead of the dull ache or irritation. He went on the injured list for a month but returned to finish the year. Following the season, an examination and scan of his wrist showed an issue that could be surgically addressed, and Edman had the procedure. He said the purpose was to remedy damage to cartilage and wrist bones.
A Gold Glove finalist as a utility player each of the past two seasons, Edman has been cleared for all baseball activities except swings.
He has started a throwing program with the repaired wrist, and he has been able to return to the weight room and lift with the wrist. He’s adjusted his running this winter to do more long-distance workouts and to increase his sprint stamina for the mileage he’s likely to log as a center field. He said Monday that he can already feel how his leg strength and endurance has increased. When he reports to spring training in February, ahead of the first workout for the full squad on Feb. 19, he’ll be able to take part in all drills but hitting, he said.
He and the team athletic trainers have scripted an 11-step program to get him from the dry swings of January to game ready by sometime in March.
“Slow progression,†he said. “I have a progression I’m going to follow. I think it’s 11 steps. The first step will be 50% off a tee for 20 swings. And then 50% off the tee for 30, 40 swings and then get to 70%-80% and then soft toss. There is a step program, and if I respond well to a certain step, then we’ll move on to the next one the next time I hit.â€
Edman said he’ll do those workouts from each side of the plate — 20 swings at 50% from the left, 20 swings at 50% from the right — as a switch-hitter, and that is baked into his schedule.
With his cage time limited, Edman said there’s more time to work in center.
“I can focus on other aspects of my game,†he said.
At the same time Edman begins his steps toward the batter’s box, he inches ever closer to an arbitration hearing with the Cardinals. The date of that hearing could be set within the next week, and it’s possible that hearing will overlap with the team’s spring training camp. Edman was the only arbitration-eligible player to not reach an agreement with the Cardinals ahead of this past week’s deadline. He filed a salary request for $6.95 million, and the Cardinals made a salary offer of $6.5 million. An arbiter will choose between those two numbers after hearing arguments from both sides. The Cardinals have adopted a “file to go†approach — meaning once they get that far with a player, they’ll go to a hearing and halt negotiations.
There is one caveat. The Cardinals will discuss a multiyear contract.
Edman said he expects that conversation to take place as the hearing nears, but he has not been involved in any discussion about a multiyear contract yet.
If that doesn’t happen, he’s braced for what he’ll hear in the room.
“It’s a terrible process,†Edman said. “Definitely could be better ways to do it. But it’s what we have to deal with. So obviously I know what goes on during the hearings, and it’s unfortunate that it happens that way. I understand both sides of it. The business side — you’re trying to pay somebody just because they want it. And then from my side, I’m trying to get paid what I’m worth. And you have two conflicting sides. So you’re going to hear some things you don’t want to hear.
“I’m going to try not to take that personal.â€
Limited to 137 games this past season due to the wrist pain, Edman hit .248 with a career-low .307 on-base percentage and a .705 on-base plus slugging percentage. If there was a certain area of his game that the wrist inhibited, Edman said it was the work that he could do on his swing. There would be days when he would reduce the amount of swings on the wrist during midday workouts “just so I don’t make it angry before the game.†That meant, at times, he could not do some of the work to adjust or correct his swing because of the risk to the wrist.
As he goes through the recovery in the coming weeks and the range of motion and comfort improves, Edman will get a feel for what a healthy wrist does for his swing — and how ready it will be for March 28 at Dodger Stadium.
“I do want to be ready for opening day, yes,†he said. “I do want to have several weeks of game action before opening day. It’s kind of hard to tell when that will be just because you don’t know how exactly it’s going to respond.â€