CLEVELAND — “When will it be ready?” Kyle Schwarber asked his doctor back in April.
“Spring training,” the doctor replied.
“How about now?” Schwarber would ask again, every month or two, between grueling rehab sessions in which therapists would strap him to a table and manually bend his stiff limb, and in which he had to limp his way to relearning how to run.
“Spring training,” the doctor would answer.
“It” was the left knee that the Cubs’ burly 23-year-old slugger, who blasted 16 home runs in just 232 at-bats as a rookie last year and five more during the playoffs, ripped up in an outfield collision during this season’s second game.