PEORIA, Ariz. — If it’s a Tuesday in the offseason, then Seattle Mariners catcher Rob Johnson is probably in a surgical suite having another repair done on a body that was battered during the 2009 season.
Two Tuesdays ago in Colorado, it was a labrum repair on Johnson’s left hip. Before that, a similar surgery on his right hip.
This Tuesday in Seattle, he’ll have an operation on his ailing left wrist.
“Three surgeries in a month. I might hold an organizational record,” Johnson said.
That may not be the end. He had a magnetic resonance imaging exam Friday on his right (throwing) elbow, hoping to learn the reason for bouts of soreness during the season. Johnson doesn’t believe he’ll need surgery on the elbow.
Johnson says he feels good after his second hip surgery and believes he’ll be ready for the opening of spring training in mid-February. The most recently repaired hip felt tight last week eight days after surgery, but his right hip felt great less than two weeks after that surgery.
“It was about 11 days or so when I had that Cloud 9 feeling,” Johnson said. “The doctors are very hopeful that I’m going to be really good in a couple of months. They seemed very promising that I’ll return to 100 percent.”
As for the injury to his left (non-throwing) wrist, all Johnson knows is that there’s a tear that needs repair.
“From my understanding, the wrist is difficult because there are so many ligaments and little muscles and tendons, and even with an MRI it’s difficult to tell,” he said. “We’ll have a better understanding Tuesday when they open me up. There’s a tear in my wrist, but don’t know the severity.”
Johnson isn’t concerned about his right elbow, although he hoped the MRI Friday would provide a clearer answer to the problems he had during the past season.
“I had some soreness during the year a little bit, but toward the end of the year I was throwing (well) and feeling pretty good,” he said. “There’s no problem with my ligament, which is really promising. If there is something, it would be bone chips or loose bodies.”
The one part of Johnson that’s strong as ever is his mental growth as a big-leaguer.
Like so many other Mariners, he thanks Ken Griffey Jr. for a big part of that, and he’s thrilled that Griffey will return next year. The two lockered next to each other at Safeco Field and became close.
“Through the year we grew in our relationship and started understanding each other more,” Johnson said. “Often I would pick his brain about the big leagues and he was definitely willing to tell me.
“I was really fortunate to locker next to him, to see everything. I would sit in my locker a lot and watch him and observe. I was able to see how he deals with media questions, see how he deals with pain and overworking his body at times. I got an understanding of what it takes to be prepared for the game, of his mental preparation and his ability to (move on after) an at-bat. Whether it’s a good at-bat for a home run or a walk, he had an ability not to let that affect his next at-bat. When he makes an out, he doesn’t let that affect his next at-bat negatively. It was really peculiar compared to the baseball players I had been around in the past.”
Johnson said he chided Griffey last week when news broke that he was returning next year.
“I called him and gave him a hard time because I had quite a few voicemails from reporters,” Johnson said. “He just said, ‘I’ll see you in the spring, and maybe before that.’ It was a really good conversation. I think he could tell the happiness in my voice and I could tell the joy in his.”
Read Kirby Arnold’s blog on the Mariner at www.heraldnet.com\marinersblog
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