SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Five or six days, maybe a week, the doctors said. After that, Ian Stewart would be ready to go, ready to roll, ready to prove that he deserved to be the Rockies’ everyday third baseman.
Or not.
As of today, it will be two weeks since Stewart played in a Cactus League game. And frankly, when he’ll play next is anyone’s guess. All he knows is that his right knee still hurts when he runs.
“It just doesn’t seem to be getting better, and if it is, it’s slowly,” Stewart said. “At least it happened at the beginning and it’s not something that would keep me out the whole month of April or something like that.”
No, but it’s likely to keep him out of the early days of April. At this point, the most likely scenario is for Ty Wigginton to open the season at third base, with Stewart on the 15-day disabled list gathering at-bats at extended spring training and a minor-league rehabilitation assignment.
The Rockies’ front office has begun putting Plan B in place in the event Stewart isn’t ready. Nothing is definitive, but the team is considering carrying three catchers, with Jordan Pacheco, who played last year in Class-A and Double-A, on the 25-man roster behind Chris Iannetta and Jose Morales.
Stewart suffered a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee in the first game at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. The injury occurred in the first inning when Stewart collided with Carlos Gonzalez as the two chased a pop fly off the bat of Diamondbacks leadoff hitter Kelly Johnson.
Stewart stayed in the game but felt increasingly uncomfortable that night. He was diagnosed with a sprain the next morning, but Stewart revealed Friday that he also has a bone bruise that gives him pain when he runs.
“Are you concerned? Let’s put it this way: He’s played three innings . . .” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. “I don’t want to think that we’ve taken anybody and tried to rush them to the finish line and thrown them out there. I don’t want to do that. You’re asking for trouble if you do that.
“So, is there still time? Yes, there is. . . . But once he comes back, I can’t be thinking about four or five days in a row. Can’t do it.”
Stewart, who had hoped to hit left-handers well enough this spring to avoid a platoon with Wigginton, wants to play sometime next week, but there’s no timetable for his return. He has been hitting and participating in fielding drills, but until he can run pain-free, he won’t be in the lineup.
“If I came in and told Dougie (trainer Keith Dugger) that I had no pain, it would still be probably three days before I got in a game,” Stewart said.
“They would have to see me running hard, then see how it feels the next day. The frustrating thing is I only feel it when I’m running. Hitting, I’m OK and groundballs are good. But when I start running, I can feel it.”
Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com
