While his teammates waited out the rain Sunday to play the Minnesota Twins, third baseman Troy Glaus returned to the Cardinals' complex in Jupiter, Fla., about to begin a different schedule of workouts and drills to help speed up the healing process for his surgically repaired right shoulder.
"The process has leveled off, and we're trying to find something that kicks it back in," Glaus said. "We didn't go backward. We just need to figure out what we can do to get it going back forward."
Glaus had surgery in January to clean up his right shoulder after discomfort lingered through his workouts this winter. Glaus went to Los Angeles last week to visit Dr. Lewis Yocum, who performed the surgery, for a scheduled eighth-week checkup. MORE CARDINALS
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An MRI was taken of the joint to see if Glaus sustained a new injury or a tear in the shoulder during his rehab, neither of which apparently has occurred. A week before the checkup, Glaus halted all baseball activities.
Glaus agreed that every day spent now without a baseball activity is probably another regular-season game lost. That is why he, the Cardinals' medical staff and team officials will meet in the near future to restructure his rehabilation.
"We're going to talk about making a couple adjustments to the rehab, maybe different things we can focus on," Glaus said. "Hopefully, that will have a different result and help me push ahead. ... What can we do to push through it?"
Glaus was placed on the 15-day disabled list, backdated to Friday. No timetable for his return has been set, although the Cardinals initially projected missing Glaus for the first month of the season.
Glaus said he didn't want to put words in the doctors' mouths but he imagined they thought he "should be a little further along than I am." He said there was a possibility of another checkup in Los Angeles, and additional surgery down the road hasn't been ruled out.
"If it doesn't respond, it doesn't respond," Glaus said. "We're all hoping that isn't the case.
"Yes, there is discomfort. Yes, the strength isn't where we hoped it would be. Is one causing the other? We don't know. We're going to put a new game plan together and see if that's what it takes to push through."