Mariners unveil expected return date for Brendan Donovan

Brendan Donovan has been cleared to return to the Seattle Mariners, but he won’t rejoin the club until after this weekend’s series against the Minnesota Twins.

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General manager Justin Hollander on Friday said Donovan is ready to come back from his rehab assignment. However, he is dealing with “some personal family stuff” and is anticipated to be activated Tuesday when Seattle begins a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers the day after MLB’s trade deadline.

The Seattle Times’ Adam Jude on Sunday reported Donovan and his wife are expecting the birth of a child any day.

“He is through his rehab, he feels good and ready to go,” Hollander said. “So, once he’s free and clear on his family stuff, he will join us likely on Tuesday.”

Donovan has been out since May 16 with a left groin muscle strain, his second trip to the injured list with the injury. Donovan also had sports hernia surgery last October.

Before landing on the IL the second time, the 29-year-old utility man was batting .274 with an .838 OPS, three homers, four doubles and one triple in 25 games.

When Donovan does return, he’ll likely see the bulk of his action at third base after J.P. Crawford was placed on the 10-day IL with left wrist inflammation on Friday. Crawford is expected to be out a “couple of weeks.” Donovan will also be eased back into action with some off days and DH days mixed in to his workload.

“When guys come off like long-term injuries, we’re not gonna run them out there every day,” Hollander said.

Donovan struggled at the plate for much of his 10-game rehab assignment the spanned across three levels of the minors. He batted .122 (5 for 41) with a homer and 11 strikeouts. However, much of the focus on Donovan’s build up to the assignment was on running. Hollander said Donovan started to really come along at the plate over his final few games. He collected all five of hits in the final four games of his assignment.

“I think he felt really good at the plate over the last three or four games, like he’s back to being himself hitting a lot of line drives, hitting the ball hard,” Hollander said. “There was a bunch of like 90 and 100 mile an hour line-drive contact over the last three or four days in his rehab, and that’s exciting for him and for us.”

Hollander couldn’t say with 100% confidence that the groin issue is fully behind Donovan, but the club doesn’t think there’s “reason to believe that he’s going to have a setback.”

“I think if we felt that way, we wouldn’t activate him,” Hollander said. “So, again, dealing with some family stuff and then once that is done, we anticipate him being active and (we’re) not concerned that he’s going to go out there and not be able to be 100%.”

The Mariners begin a three-games series with the Twins on Friday at 7:10 p.m. Radio coverage begins on Seattle Sports 710 AM and the Seattle Sports app with the pregame show at 6 p.m.

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