DETROIT — Detroit Tigers outfielder Andy Dirks took his first live batting practice swings on Friday, according to manager Brad Ausmus, who expected Dirks to receive a rehab assignment within the next week to 10 days.

“Probably, unless there’s some sort of setback,” Ausmus said. “I don’t have a date, not in terms of a rehab. I’m sure it’ll be within the next week to 10 days. But there’s no date, as of now.”

Head trainer Kevin Rand said Dirks took some live swings in an intrasquad game in Lakeland, Fla., and will play in a couple more intrasquad games.

Even if Dirks requires the maximum 10 days before getting his assignment, and stays the full 20 days in the minors allowed on a rehab assignment, that would put him in Detroit right at the All-Star break.

Dirks had microdiscectomy on March 10, during spring training, and was expected to miss 12 weeks. He began light baseball activities on May 10, then graduated to taking full swings two weeks later.

“Yeah, I talked to Dirks actually today. He said he’s feeling better,” Ausmus said. “Overall, he’s making progress like he’s on schedule, he’s making progress like he’s supposed to.”

DETROIT — Of any of the injury rehabilitations Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus has had to explain, the easiest for him to talk about has probably been Andy Dirks’ recovery from microdiscectomy to repair a disc in his back.

After all, Ausmus had that very surgery in 2010, so he knows what steps are necessary for Dirks to make it back.

“I was trying to think of that when I was reading the report on him couple days ago. I remember kind of easily doing some of the stuff he did: throwing and taking dry swings. You take some swings off the tee, and soft toss. Then it goes relatively quickly after that,” Ausmus said Saturday.

“I think once the doctors feel you can rotate without any issues, it went relatively quickly from dry swings to going to batting practice, and then rehab.”

Dirks has been doing light baseball activities for two weeks, including the dry swings and throwing that Ausmus remembered.

Initially, it was anticipated that Dirks would be facing a 12-week recovery process from surgery on May 10.

That set the potential return date for the first week of June — which is rapidly approaching.

Even with the thought that it may move quickly from here on out, it would be surprising if Dirks is back with the Tigers in early June. It may not even be late June.

As interminable as the wait seems for fans, it’s gotta be worse for Dirks.

Ausmus remembers what that’s like, too.

“Boring. I actually, except for the first week after surgery, traveled with the team. I was with the Dodgers, so I was traveling with the team. I didn’t do much. Other than for a while, just walking on the treadmill was all I could do. I would watch the game every night, but I literally couldn’t do anything,” the manager said.

“It got a little boring. I would imagine Dirks is even more bored, because he’s not with the team. I could at least go out and have a beer with some of the players after the game. I don’t know who he’s hanging out with.”

A quick update on some of the Tigers’ injuries:

• Andy Dirks has moved out of the rehabilitation phase of his recovery from back surgery in early March. Dirks had microdiscectomy surgery on March 10, and was expected to need 12 weeks of recovery, starting with three weeks of complete rest, and three weeks of therapy.

He’s closer to nine weeks out, now.

“He threw the other day for the first time, and he can take dry swings. Just swing a bat easy. That’s where he’s at. I guess the very beginnings of baseball activities,” said Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, who had the same surgery in 2010.

“We’re coming up on two months, really. It’s kind of a three-month injury. I think it was three months. Whenever the exact date of the surgery was, roughly three months from there. Everyone’s a little different.”

A twelve-week estimate would put land Dirks’ target return date in the first week of June.


• Anibal Sanchez felt fine after Friday’s bullpen session.

“Sanchie is going to throw a simulated (game) in Baltimore on Tuesday,” Ausmus said.

On the DL since April 27, Sanchez said Friday night he expects to return to the rotation on May 18, against Boston.


• Luke Putkonen threw two innings in his second rehabilitation outing Friday night, giving up a run on two hits. He will make another appearance in Toledo on Tuesday, according to Ausmus, and should be good to go after that.

“Should be, yeah. If it continues as it is right now,” Ausmus said.

Putkonen has been on the disabled list since April 19 with inflammation in his throwing elbow.

When Tigers pitcher Phil Coke puts on a Toledo Mud Hens uniform on Friday, and trots to the mound in Scranton, Pa., for a rehab start against the New York Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate, it will seem like almost any other day at the office.

He’ll have a familiar coworker in the Hens lineup with him, after all.

Magglio Ordonez, who has been on the disabled list since May 13 with weakness in his surgically-repaired ankle, will begin his rehab stint with Toledo the same day, the Tigers announced Wednesday.

Even though Tigers manager Jim Leyland has tried to stay out of the discussion, leaving it between Ordonez and the training staff — “I just stay out of that stuff. ... Whenever they tell me Magglio’s ready, he’s ready,” he said — there’s no question that he’s been encouraged by watching Ordonez take batting practice on the field at Comerica Park the last few days.
“He felt fine the last couple of days, felt really good. And drove the ball pretty good. Just wait and see,” Leyland said after one session.

“He feels great, but is a couple of days swinging going to change how he feels? I wouldn’t think so, but I don’t know,” the manager noted after another.

Struggling off and on with his ankle in the cold weather early this season, Ordonez was hitting just .171 in 26 games before notifying the Tigers’ medical staff that he wanted to shut it down.
He was re-examined by Dr. Phillip Kwong, the surgeon who repaired his broken ankle last August, in Los Angeles three weeks ago, but has been rehabbing in Detroit since then.

Coke, who has been on the DL with a bruised bone in his foot, is scheduled to return to the Tigers’ active roster after his lone rehab start. Once he comes back, the Tigers will send left-handed starter Andy Oliver back to Toledo.

Ordonez’s return could make for a more interesting roster decision. Do the Tigers demote Andy Dirks, who’s hit .281 since taking Ordonez’s spot on the roster? Or Casper Wells (.228)? Or infielder Danny Worth, who may be less needed, once Ordonez’s presence in the outfield rotation pushes Ryan Raburn into the second base role full time?

Just wait and see on that, too, I guess.

DETROIT — Given how much he’d struggled this year with his balky ankle, I don’t think anyone was surprised when the Detroit Tigers sent veteran outfielder Magglio Ordonez to the 15-day disabled list on Friday.

Andy Dirks, who was hitting .328 at Triple-A Toledo, was recalled to fill Ordonez’s spot on the 25-man active roster.

And given how well the 25-year-old outfielder had played both in spring training — hitting .333 to force his way into the conversation for the final reserve outfield spot — as well as in his first extended tour of duty at Triple-A, it was no surprise that Dirks got the nod. An added bonus for the Tigers is that it gives then another guy capable of covering the territory in Comerica Park’s spacious center field, allowing Austin Jackson a day off without much of a defensive drop-off.

Ordonez has struggled with frequent soreness and inflammation in his surgically-repaired right ankle, the one that cost him the second half of last season. He’ll be referred back to Dr. Phillip Kwong of the Kerlan-Jobe Clinic in Los Angeles — who performed the surgery on Ordonez’s ankle on Aug. 25 — for further testing.

The move will be retroactive to Wednesday, making him eligible to come off the DL on May 25.