Mariners outfielder Mitch Haniger has yet to resume baseball activity, Dipoto says
Seattle Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said Wednesday that outfielder Mitch Haniger has yet to resume baseball activity as he continues to rehab from a series of injuries that date back to the 2019 season.
Haniger was initially injured in a game against Houston last June, when he fouled a pitch off himself, which resulted in a ruptured testicle and led to surgery. His attempts to return to the field in August were shut down by subsequent back issues.
He was on track to return to spring training in 2020 at full strength, with his offseason program progressing well, but a setback in January led to two more surgeries within a three-week span before the Mariners opened camp.
While Haniger reported to camp in Arizona in February, he did not participate in any workouts on the field.
When Major League Baseball announced its return date for camps in June, Dipoto said Haniger had been in close contact with team physical therapist Ryan Bitzel throughout the shutdown, but the club would still be “slow and careful” with how it handled Haniger’s rehab.
He was placed on the 45-day injured list when the Mariners announced their 60-man player pool on June 28.
“Since he left Arizona, my understanding is that most of what he has done, he has done on his own based on a series of exercises and activities that he was provided, both by the doctors and Bitz,” Dipoto said Wednesday. “They’ve tracked and monitored that.
“Frankly, he’s right on target and he’s moving. We are intentionally asking him not to push it beyond the point where he is comfortable pushing it right now. He has not started baseball activity, and therefore we thought the safest and smartest thing to do was start him on the 45-day IL.”
In order for Haniger to return to T-Mobile Park, even to work out as a rehabbing player, he would have to be added to the 60-man.
“Right now we feel like, for obvious reasons, those spots are gold,” Dipoto said. “And, if our understanding is with Mitch that, minimally, he’s not going to play for an extended period, and there’s a very good chance that he doesn’t play at all in 2020, we want to use that spot on a player who is either, A, developing or B, has the opportunity to help us here in Seattle if a need arises.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 6:36 PM.
