PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. - Carl Crawford, who remains sidelined following wrist surgery in January and a setback in February, is continuing to take steps toward returning to the lineup, though that won't come until late April at the earliest.
"He's doing well,'' said GM Ben Cherington. "He's progressing. He's swinging a bat. He's started to take some swings off BP pitchers inside a cage rather than just (hitting) tee or (soft) toss, so that's a step forward for him.
"He'll likely stay in Fort Myers when we break. We'll map out a program for him. If he continues to progress, we hope we'll get into game at-bats relatively soon -- I don't know exactly when yet. In April, we expect that to happen.
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"We'll continue to listen to him and what he feels and what he feels like he's ready to do and how many at-bats and how many reps he feels he needs to feel comfortable about moving out of there. He'll be in Fort Myers for a while and we'll just see how it goes. But he's progressing well.''