"Jorge Cantu literally limped home at the end of last season. He arrived at the Marlins Get your Marlins Tickets now!' spring training complex Sunday walking unaided, but getting back to that point was an arduous process.

Cantu sprained his right ankle on the base paths in the second-to-last game in Philadelphia. It took three months before the discomfort subsided. Had the injury occurred any earlier during the season, Cantu said, "I would have been screwed. The pain was incredible."

It precluded Cantu from beginning his offseason program in earnest until mid-January, more than a month later than usual. Cantu said he put on 10 pounds of "pure fat" from eating and the inactivity. He's already shed it thanks to an intense month of rehab and workouts at the Texas Sports Medicine Center in Houston with trainer Dennis Fay.

His work there over the last several offseasons in large part is why Cantu has experienced a renaissance after his career stalled with the Tampa Bay Rays."