Travis Hafner, one of the most watched players in the Indians' training camp, has begun to play in spring training games.
That's the next step in Hafner's return from offseason shoulder surgery, which followed a 2008 season in which he spent most of the time on the disabled list. The surgery was to clean out the joint in Hafner's right shoulder. It was a shoulder that was constantly sore and weak throughout the 2008 season, and Hafner's statistics reflected it.
Hafner was limited to 198 at-bats during the season. He batted .197 in those at-bats, and his power was nearly non-existent. Of Hafner's 39 hits, 24 of them were singles. He hit only five home runs.
Indians officials hope that a winter of rest and rehabilitation, following the shoulder surgery, will allow Hafner to produce numbers closer to his prime years of 2004-06.
In that stretch, he hit above .300 with 30-plus home runs and 100-plus runs batted in every year.
However, first Hafner must prove that his shoulder is healthy and strong again. The first step in doing that is to get enough at-bats during the exhibition season to answer all the lingering questions about the shoulder.
Through his first four appearances in spring training games, Hafner was 3-for-10 with a double, no home runs and two RBI.
As long as he has no setbacks physically, Hafner figures to get an increasing number of at-bats through the second half of spring training.
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