Franklin Gutierrez said last week when he arrived at spring training that he was fine after the stomach problems that plagued him last season.
Today, he’s not so fine.
The Mariners’ Gold Glove-winning center fielder is back in Seattle today to have more tests. Manager Eric Wedge didn’t believe it’s anything serious and he expected Gutierrez to play in Friday’s intrasquad game if he returned to Arizona later today.
“We want to be pro-active about this and stay ahead of it to make sure he doesn’t have some of the same issues he had last year,” Wedge said.
Wedge said Gutierriez was able to participate in all drills his first week of spring training, but that the stomach bothered him “a little bit on and off. We saw him out there working out and doing his thing, but it was enough for us to check it out a little bit further to stay ahead of it. We’ll see what they come up with, if anything, and we’ll go from there. There’s really no reason to speculate right now.
“I’m optimistic, obviously. One thing I want to do with Guti this year from a playing-time standpoint is to make sure we give him a few more days off. I felt that was something we needed to do in Cleveland and it helped him a little bit.”
Gutierrez played 152 games last year. He played 153 games his first season with the Mariners in 2009, the most in his career.
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