Aramis Ramirez Says Injured Shoulder May Bother Him All Year

Aramis Ramirez watches the Cubs play from the dugout

With July creeping closer and the Cubs still lingering behind the Cardinals and Brewers in the NL Central, Aramis Ramirez's absence gets more and more noticeable every day. Without him, Mike Fontenot and his pitiful .686 OPS have gotten most of the playing time at third base and Kosuke Fukudome has been the Cubs' second best hitter. Anyway you look at it, that's just not going to cut it.

The good news for Cubs fans is that the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Ramirez worked out today and is still planning on starting batting practice this weekend, which means that his original rehab is still approximately on schedule. The bad news is that Ramirez sounds awfully cautious when discussing the shoulder. Click after the jump for some of his words.

''It's sore still, but it's going to be there for a while,'' Ramirez told the Sun-Times. ''I don't know. I've never played like that before. When I got hurt in 2000 [dislocating the same shoulder on Aug. 28], I didn't play the rest of the year, so I don't know how I'm going to react. Once I start playing, then I'll know.''

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''I'm pretty sure, especially a day game after a night game, it's going to be a little tough to come back and play,'' he said. ''We'll see how it goes. It depends. Hopefully, I don't have to take a lot of time off. I've already taken enough time.''

As much as the Cubs need Ramirez back, he sounds like he's already lowering expectations for his return in case he has to miss more time. Shoulder injuries are already tricky, and Ramirez has separated this shoulder once before, back when he was with the Pirates. All of which goes to say that maybe Ramirez's return isn't going to be the event that turns the Cubs' fortunes around.