Encouraging news on Joyce

By ROGER MOONEY
rmooney@bradenton.com
Rays executive vice president Andrew Friedman shed some light on Matt Joyce before Sunday’s game against the Red Sox in Fort Myers.

Friedman said Joyce has tendinitis in his lower right leg. The injury, sustained in December, has kept Joyce out of every game and almost every workout this spring.

“I think all of us kind of feared it may be something worse, so it was very good news,” Friedman said. “That said, we’re not completely out of the woods yet. We’re cautiously optimistic that we’ll be able to get through it. But it by no means is a certainty.”

Friedman expects Joyce to return to on-field workouts this week. He did not set a timetable for when Joyce might actually play in a game.

Friedman said the plan is for Joyce to “slowly get his legs under him, get him back out there doing baseball skills type things and ultimately getting him into a game. But, obviously, if we have a setback during that period, we’re going to have to be aggressive. But right now, that’s the plan of attack.”

Friedman said tests conducted by the Rays training staff and doctors suggest the tendinitis has always been present in Joyce’s leg but flared up after an strenuous workout last December.

“We’re cautiously optimistic that this is behind us,” Friedman said. “But in the event it flares back up and prevents him from playing, we’re going to have to explore other courses of action.”

That “other” course of action could be surgery, Friedman said.

“Extreme could be surgery down the road,” Friedman said. “But we think that’s the least likely scenario right now. But like I said, right now, we’re not going to proceed like this is a non-factor and we’re just going to let him go. We’re going to really monitor it and methodically get him back on the field.”

Joyce, 24, was acquired in December in a trade with Detroit for pitcher Edwin Jackson. The Rays like Joyce’s defense and the power in his left-handed bat.

While Joyce was headed for Triple A Durham even before his injury, the Rays were hoping for a glimpse this spring in what they obtained when they traded a pitcher who won 14 games last season.

There still maybe time for that, but it depends on Joyce’s leg.

“We’re not going to push it,” Friedman said. “We just need to methodically get him ready to play in the game, so we’re not going to set a timetable on that.”