SARASOTA, Fla. -- For the last year, Christian Vazquez kept hearing the same two words over and over from his doctors, trainers, coaches, teammates, even from the Baltimore Orioles’ Matt Wieters, one of the few big-league catchers to make it back from Tommy John elbow surgery.
“Don’t rush.”
Yet here was Vazquez, 341 days after undergoing the procedure typically reserved for pitchers and with a rehabilitation of 12-15 months, behind the plate for the Boston Red Sox and catching lefty Roenis Elias for two innings of a spring training game against Wieters and the Orioles.