SF Giants’ Evan Longoria Close To Rehab Appointment

SAN FRANCISCO — Evan Longoria’s view of the Giants’ 8-3 road trip would be from his couch in Scottsdale, where he continued to repair a finger he had surgically repaired last month if he could bear the experience of watching games on TV. .

“Serving after serving is too much for me to watch,” Longoria said.

So, after the last week and a half of checking results and texting teammates, Longoria put on a particularly happy face at the club on Tuesday afternoon before the Giants opened the Bay Bridge streak with A’s. Of course, he was delighted to see his teammates again, but he was also delighted with the progress he had made in the month since he had surgery on his right index finger ligament.

Longoria, who marked four weeks post-surgery on Tuesday, said he hopes to be able to start a rehab appointment by the end of next week, which will fit him into the 4-6-week post-procedure schedule. .

“I’m pretty optimistic that within a week I’ll be able to play somewhere, or at least be at full speed on everything,” Longoria said. “Even if I don’t play a real game, I feel comfortable enough to measure blood pressure in real time or do everything at full speed.”

So far, Longoria has learned to swing the bat and throw the ball from up to 60 feet away.

Prior to Tuesday’s game, Longoria took ground balls and third base and used his surgically repaired right hand to shoot, notably better than he was before the Giants hit the road (when he took ground balls but tried not to use his right hand) .

The pain of throwing a baseball, which, unlike hitting, requires Longoria to separate his fingers, prompted him to opt for surgery in the first place. So the particularly good news was that he started throwing the baseball again. Now, according to him, it is the blows that cause him more discomfort.

Longoria, 36, hits foam balls at the pitching machine and hopes to continually increase his speed and eventually work with real baseballs before he’s ready to face a live pitch again.

While he hopes to be ready to begin rehab by the end of next week, he said it’s not something he’s discussed with the Giants’ training staff, who are focused on bringing him back to full strength.

When Longoria suffered an initial injury last August, on the field out of hand from closer Edwin Diaz Mets, he said he rushed back with the team in the thick of the pennant race but never felt completely comfortable. This proved true on the field, as his .670 OPS from injury recovery was more than 200 points lower than before (.908).

“September started and I just wanted to get back on the field. It probably wasn’t the best thing for me in terms of health and obviously in terms of production,” Longoria said. “I want to be able to come back and feel like I can be productive right from the start, at least in terms of pain-free treatment.”