Ryan Westmoreland (pictured at Gillette Stadium on Nov. 21) is still working out in Florida, Red Sox farm director Mike Hazen said at a rookie-program workout at Boston College on Wednesday. Westmoreland is still working out and taking batting practice, a gradual rehab program that won't change much when spring training begins. No timetable has been set for when Westmoreland might think about playing in games. But the Red Sox still have high hopes they'll see the Portsmouth native, now close to a year removed from surgery to remove a cavernous malformation on his brain stem, in a uniform and on a field at some point.
"He's hitting, he's throwing, he's going through all the workouts -- the lifting," Hazen said. "I still think, the original diagnosis -- it was going to take some time to get back where he was. We're not going to make any hard-line predictions or set a time frame for when he's actually going to come out and play in a game. We're taking it day by day. We're seeing steady progress. He's seeing steady progress. It's still going to take a little while to get him back to where he was. But we're still confident and optimistic.
"If you're betting on any one person to get back and make it to that place, it's him. You'd be amazed at the amount of drive in this kid, given what he's had and the setbacks and all the things he's had to go through. It's inspiring, is what it is. You just hope that he's going to be able to take the field again one day because you know how bad he wants it."
Because what Westmoreland is trying to do has little to no precedent, there's no way to measure his progress. But all parties agree that the progress since last March continues to be amazing.
"We'll push him when we can push him, and we'll have to pull him back when we need to pull him back," Hazen said. "There's no time frame on when he might see game action or anything like that. But I know he's chomping at it, wanting to get out there and do some stuff. I feel like we've pushed him, repeatedly, to where he's wanted to be pushed."