David Dahl joined a slew of teammates Thursday morning at the Rockies’ spring training complex at Salt River Fields for an offseason session that included stretching, sprinting, throwing and lifting weights. Then Dahl grabbed a bat and began hitting baseballs off a tee.
No big deal, right? Wrong.
It was the first time Dahl had swung a bat since July 31 when a painful and persistent injury shut down his season.
“That was nice, just being a ballplayer again,” the outfielder said from his home in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Last spring, Dahl suffered a stress-reaction injury to a rib and played in just two Cactus League games before he was shut down.