Aramis agrees to rehab assignment in Minors
MILWAUKEE -- Brewers third baseman Aramis Ramirez was encouraged by a new round of baseball activities on Wednesday and said for the first time that he would finish his comeback with a Minor League rehab assignment if club officials asked him to do so.
Ramirez, on the disabled list since the second week of May with a strained left hamstring, took swings in live batting practice against left-hander Wei-Chung Wang before running the bases for the first time under the supervision of head athletic trainer Dan Wright. Ramirez then took regular batting practice with the team and fielded his position.
"I feel pretty good," Ramirez said. "I can't complain. Everything went according to plan. [The final step] is taking the ground balls and reacting to balls in the field. That's how I hurt it. Running, you can control that a little bit. Playing defense, you just react."
Ramirez and manager Ron Roenicke planned to have a discussion later in the day about a next step. Roenicke said earlier in the week he was trying to convince Ramirez to test his leg in a few games at a Minor League affiliate. That decision ultimately rests with the player, per baseball's Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Class A Wisconsin, based about an hour north of Milwaukee, is home beginning Saturday. The weather forecast is excellent for Saturday, but calls for a chance of rain on Sunday.
"I'm going to talk to Ronnie about it today or tomorrow," Ramirez said. "He wants me to go for one or two games to do a rehab assignment, so when I get close to doing it, I'll do whatever he wants. He's the boss and we have a pretty good relationship."
While hesitating to put a timeline on his return to Major League action, Ramirez said, "It will be sooner rather than later."
"I don't want to put a time on it," Roenicke echoed. "We need him to run a little harder out there, but somewhere [over the weekend or early next week], I think he'll be ready. We'll talk about things, the pros and cons, and see if we can work it out."