Daisuke Matsuzaka took his first step back toward the mound, throwing his first bullpen session since having season-ending elbow surgery in June. The right-hander threw 21 pitches to his catcher at the team's spring training facility in Florida, according to a report. He will long toss on Wednesday and return to the bullpen Friday as long as there are no setbacks.

The Phillies expect Ryan Howard to return to the field sometime in May. Howard is ahead of schedule in his recovery from left Achilles surgery, but general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said not to expect the first baseman on Opening Day. "I think it's more than a reach," Amaro said. "If he's back by sometime in May, I'll be happy."

Victor Martinez underwent microfracture surgery on his left knee, but will require another procedure. The first surgery repaired the medial and lateral meniscus in the knee. He is projected to have anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery on the same knee in six to eight weeks. The Tigers officially announced on Monday that Martinez will likely miss the 2012 season.

Dallas Braden won't travel to Japan with the Athletics when they kick off the 2012 season against the Mariners. Braden missed most of last season because of injury and hopes to be able to pitch for Oakland when they return to the United States. He is slated to pitch 25 fastballs off a mound on Monday for the first time since having shoulder surgery last May. "I feel great," Braden said. "I feel really strong. It's nice to know all the hard work we put into the offseason and the days you didn't want to get up and the days you didn't want to push through, you now understand why it's important to do so."

Justin Morneau is "right on schedule" to begin the 2012 season at first base for the Twins. Morneau had four surgeries and suffered a concussion last year, while playing in only 69 games and hitting four home runs. "It's impossible to know what the future's going to hold, but I've just got to listen to what my body's telling me that day," Morneau said. He had operations on his neck, left knee and right foot during the season and his left wrist right after it. After returning from the concussion that knocked him out of action for the last half of the 2010 season, he suffered a recurrence diving for a ball late in the year. He said he still has headaches "once in a while" but that he's felt great since 2012 began.

There have been questions why the Red Sox and Carl Crawford waited until January for the outfielder to have surgery on his sore left wrist, but GM Ben Cherington explained on Thursday that at the end of the 2011 season there were no indications that the left fielder was having problems. Crawford recently had arthroscopic surgery and could likely miss the start of the season. He will, however, be ready for baseball activities during spring training.

Red Sox left fielder Carl Crawford underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left wrist on Tuesday, putting in doubt his availability for Opening Day. Boston general manager Ben Cherington is confident that Crawford will be the team's left fielder for "the bulk of the season" and that the injury won't linger. "It was a basic debridement of some cartilage in his left wrist," said Cherington. "[It's a] relatively routine procedure. We expect Carl to be recovered and hitting at some point during Spring Training. We're not going to put an exact timeline on it. We expect him to be hitting at some point during Spring Training and then expect him to be in position to return to play at some point very early in the season." The injury was discovered when Crawford began increasing his offseason workouts.

Tigers hitter Victor Martinez has injured his left knee and is likely to miss most of the 2012 season. Martinez tore his left ACL last week during offseason conditioning. An MRI exam on Monday revealed the injury. He hit .330 with 103 RBIs in 2011, helping Detroit win the AL Central in his first season with the Tigers. He signed a $50 million, four-year contract before last season.

Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright is on track for a normal Spring Training after undergoing Tommy John surgery nearly 11 months ago. St. Louis had hoped, at the time of the surgery, that Wainwright could pitch the entire 2012 season with a shortened spring. Without a setback to mar his rehab process, Wainwright is on track to carry a normal Spring Training load and to take his spot in the big league rotation the first week of the season. In fact, the only thing set to suffer over the next year is Wainwright's home garden, which became an important place of refuge during the rehab process. "I'm not ashamed to brag about my gardening skills," Wainwright joked. "One of the many ways I kept myself sane last year was that garden. It was my sanity garden. It seemed to work."

Mets left-hander Johan Santana hopes to be ready to pitch by Opening Day, but he isn't making any assurances. Santana missed the entire 2011 season while recovering from surgery to repair a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder. He threw on flat ground from a distance of 90 feet Thursday at the team's spring-training complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla., as he works back from Sept. 14, 2010 surgery. Santana had made a handful of rehab starts at the end of last season before being shut down for the winter to allow his body to recuperate. "Time will tell," Santana said. "As of right now, I'm going to follow everything the way they want me to do, and we'll see how it feels. I cannot tell you what's going to happen five, six weeks from now, because I'd be lying to you. I have to go one day at a time. That's the way we have done things from last year. That's how we're going to do it this year as well. And we'll see by the time spring training and the regular season comes -- are we ready to go? "It's going to be tough for me to guess because I don't know how I'm going to feel in two months."