DUNEDIN — Travis Snider continues to recover from an irritated muscle in the left side of his rib cage, swinging a bat for the first time in 10 days on Friday.
“I took 25 swings off a tee, full out, 100%,” said Snider. “I’m not running yet, not throwing yet. It’ll be a couple of days before we crank that up. But there was no discomfort.
“I wasn’t guarding it or hesitant. I feel I could go out and take batting practice right now but we’re taking it slow. I expect by next week sometime I’ll be taking batting practice.”
While there is no timetable, even if it takes two more weeks before Snider is back in game shape, that will still mean there are three full weeks of Grapefruit League action to get ready for the season.
“I can’t put a date on it right now, but I’m confident I’ll be only a couple of weeks to get some at-bats and get into game shape.”
Meanwhile, Aaron Hill, nursing a slightly pulled quad muscle, participated in workouts but not in Friday’s intersquad game.
“Hill did all his early work, went through a full infield,” said manager John Farrell. “We’re not going to push him too much. We want to make sure he’s symptom free, completely. It’s a day-to-day situation. We want him free and clear before we put him in a game.”
