Kyle Teel is moving faster than the original recovery window after suffering a high left ankle sprain on July 20 in Texas, and the White Sox catcher sounds encouraged by how quickly the rehab has started to come together.
Teel still isn’t attaching a firm return date to the injury, but the day-to-day gains are obvious to him. He said he’s gone from working at roughly half of his top sprint speed to pushing 90%, and that his rehab has already started to include more lateral movement and other game-like stress.
“Doing great, progressing every day,” the upbeat Teel told MLB.com prior to Wednesday’s game against the Reds at Rate Field. “My running has gone well.
… When I started off running this week, it’s like reaching half of my top sprint speed and now I’m pushing 90% top sprint speed. We hit a jump in our progression and it’s going really well.
Starting to introduce more lateral stuff. Getting ready for the stress I would be facing in the game, and overall just doing normal rehab stuff.”
Teel also got back to swinging this week. He took dry swings Tuesday, then handled tee work and flips Wednesday in his first real day of swinging.
That’s a long way from the scene that produced the injury, when he hurt himself trying to tag out Ezequiel Duran at home plate in the second inning of a 10-3 victory. At the time, he was initially expected to miss 8-12 weeks, though the MRI the next day shortened that outlook. Even now, Teel says the speed of the turnaround has surprised him.
“Even two weeks ago, I had the boot on, I was still limping around, and now I’m able to run 90%,” Teel said. “It’s pretty wild how quickly I healed.
Now it’s taking care of the little things and hopefully back really soon. I’m honestly blessed.
I got really lucky.”
The ankle issue is just the latest setback in a rough injury year for Teel. On March 10, during a World Baseball Classic game between Team Italy and Team USA, he suffered a Grade 2 right hamstring strain while running out a double. Then on May 16, while rehabbing with Triple-A Charlotte, he strained the lateral collateral ligament in his right knee after his cleats got caught on a swing.
For now, though, Teel is focused on the progress in front of him rather than trying to project when he’ll be back behind the plate for good.
“When I feel ready to go, we are going. I feel good,” Teel said. “I’m ready for the weather to get a little cooler and it’s September baseball.”
White Sox manager Will Venable echoed that optimism and said Teel is already working through catching drills and stationary work. The running, Venable said, is the last piece to fully catch up.
“He’s not popping up and throwing guys out,” Venable said. “More keeping the framing and receiving mechanics in position.
Staying sharp. He’s touching all the things.
There’s just going to be the running, it’s going to be the thing that is slower to catch up than everything else. You would like to think one week from now, as far as hitting goes, he’s kind of full-go hitting.
“Behind that will be the defensive stuff, the running stuff. More of the non-hitting stuff.
And so you hope he progresses to a point where without putting a firm timeline, at the end of the month, around then he’s looking at a rehab assignment. I don’t think that’s too premature, but that’s also leaving some room for a week on either side.”
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