Mariners hopeful Brendan Donovan returns soon, but exact timeline remains unclear

MIAMI – Back on June 29 when general manager Justin Hollander offered his organizational injury updates before the last homestand, he wouldn’t put a date on when Brendan Donovan would start a rehab assignment.

“I’m loath to tell you, ‘Here’s a date for a rehab assignment,’ ” Hollander said after Donovan landed on the IL for the second time due to a left groin strain. “His injury is really not conducive to me doing that. All it’s going to do is if we either start it early, and people will say I undershot it intentionally, or he’ll start it late and people will say I was pushing good news and over-optimism.”

While Hollander didn’t give a date, manager Dan Wilson said later in the homestand that Donovan would start a rehab assignment Tuesday.

But when Tuesday came, Donovan wasn’t in the lineup for the Arizona Complex League team.

So what happened? Was there a setback?

Asked about it before Tuesday’s game in Miami, Wilson’s answer was somewhat vague.

Asked again before Wednesday’s game, Wilson replied: “BD is down there (in Arizona). He was able to go through some work yesterday, and will probably go through a little more pregame today, to get ready. He’ll likely start games here in the next few days. We are not quite sure yet how quickly that will be, but he’s getting closer.”

Hollander offered a little more detail on the situation.

“He wanted to get some pregame reps in the ACL to make sure he was ready to go,” Hollander said. “I don’t think anyone wants Donny to get back out there more than Donny, but getting comfortable for a few days in Arizona seems very reasonable given this is his second trip to the IL and he wants to avoid another trip.”

With the ACL playing games through the All-Star break, Donovan won’t be lacking for opportunities to get at-bats and innings in the field.

They also don’t want Donovan to rush himself back. They’d rather wait until he’s ready to come back than push him to get back for the first game after the All-Star break.

“When BD is ready to go, he will be ready to go,” Hollander said. “We are dealing with a unique injury and the most important thing is that we get it right. The extra time on the front end is much better than having a setback.”

The hope is Donovan plays in a rehab game in the coming days.

“There’s a reason we don’t give exact dates,” Hollander said. “We want our players to go out and play in games when they are ready and not because they feel obligated to get out there if they aren’t 100% ready either physically or emotionally.”