Jays notes: Tulo not ready to put timetable on return

On the first day of full-squad workouts for the Blue Jays, rehabbing shortstop Troy Tulowitzki took some groundballs early in the morning, rolled at him by coach Luis Rivera. He skipped most of the agility and exercise sessions and sat on the sidelines for fielding drills. Then he took some swings off bullpen catcher Alex Andreopoulos. In other words, he’s a long way from being ready for opening day.

“I’m not going to put any timetables on it,” Tulowitzki said. “Obviously that’s the goal, but there’s still so many days in front of us here in spring training. I definitely want to be out there, but I’m not going to say for sure.”

Tulowitzki has been out of action since suffering a gruesome right ankle injury while avoiding the foot of then-Angels first baseman C.J. Cron on the bag on July 28.

He spoke about the controversial rule change, announced Monday, that will limit teams to six mound visits in nine innings (by a manager, coach or player) before a pitcher must be removed.

“If I want the pitcher out of there, then I can make my own pitching changes, so I kind of like that,” Tulowitzki laughed. “No, the rules are the rules and you obey them, you adjust. Sometimes it takes a while to adjust to them. Whether I like it or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s a rule.”

Jays manager John Gibbons defended the number of visits in today’s games.

“It really kind of goes into the video age, too,” Gibbons said. “They’re better at picking up signs — at second base anyway. When you see all the games on TV, you can pick up the team signs if you look at it. We didn’t always have that, or maybe it wasn’t utilized as much. You try your best to counter things in this video day and age. Win a game.”

BUILDING STAMINA: Devon Travis has three years of major-league service, but in that time has spent more days on the disabled list than the active roster. He could be forgiven for being a little gun-shy when it comes to keeping up with others at spring training.

“Obviously I’m still working to get back in the shape, but it feels good,” Travis said. “Not playing in so long, having to build back up to stamina is the biggest thing now. I’m able to do everything. Now I just have to continue to stay on it and make sure I can go back-to-back-to-back-to-back days. Right now it’s just building the stamina and getting my legs used to it kind of like a normal baseball player.” Richard Griffin