Caleb Joseph: "I'm feeling really good" (updated)

Teammates walked up to Orioles catcher Caleb Joseph this morning, grabbed his hand, leaned in and offered what best can be described as a gentle hug. No contact below the belt.

Joseph smiled and exchanged quips. He's heard them all and it's his turn to deliver a few at his own expense.

Joseph sustained a testicular injury Monday night after being struck by a foul tip. He underwent a surgical procedure at the University of Maryland Medical Center that left in him extreme discomfort until about three days ago.

"I'm feeling really good. Much better," he said. "Obviously, I was in a lot of pain there, but the past few days, I've turned the corner and I'm feeling really good."

Just not good enough to offer a timetable for his return.

""They've got me on the 15-day (disabled list) right now," he said. "There's a period close to that that we're really going to start just continuing to progress in terms of rest. Rest is the kind of the No. 1 thing Richie (Bancells) and I talked about and continuing to feel better, but anything past that we're just still a little unsure right now.

"Rest is the No. 1 thing. It's working so far, so hopefully as it gets closer to that date, we've got a better timeframe."

In the meantime, Joseph has been watching the games from home and soaking up family time.

"I enjoyed being able to spend time with my wife and my son," he said. "Anytime you get a little extended period during the season that you're usually away, there's always good that can come out of that. This is my family away from my family. It's been tough watching the games on TV. It's different. It's a lot different. Hitting is so much easier on TV than it is here. I feel like I can hit .400 right now.

"Being at home and not feeling like you can even encourage your teammates, I'm glad to be back and glad to be at home."

The Orioles insisted on taking Joseph to the hospital Monday night despite how he played the final inning of the game.

"They did a great job over there getting me in there and getting me through," he said. "It was a holiday and for those that don't know, they say that holidays are really good days (to be in) the hospital. It's the day following the holiday you don't want to go to the hospital. There's a little nugget there.

"It was fine until we decided to have surgery to repair some of the damage that was done and they start telling you worst-case scenarios, disclaimers, I think. That's when you really start thinking, 'OK, this isn't just they're going in and putting a few stitches in and putting a Band-Aid over it.' Some serious stuff can happen.

"This is my first experience with surgery. It's unique. It frightens you a little bit. That's what we have faith for, it's what I believe in. It did happen quick, and before I know it, I was in a bed, I was in a room watching a replay of the game. About every three hours, I got to watch the incident over and over and over."

The question on everybody's mind was how he continued to catch after being hit. He stayed down on the ground, trying to catch his breath, but remained on the field.

"I just kind of grit my teeth and just kept going," he said. "As a backup, you want to give the starter his day off. I don't know, I just refused not to come out. It's just something I guess I've kind of prided myself in for a long time, just trying to stay in the game no matter what. But of course, if it got to a certain point where I felt like I was going to hinder the team at any point, then I would have come out. But I still felt like I could play."

Joseph faces a mental hurdle of sorts after he comes off the disabled list. He's going to be vulnerable again to wicked foul tips, one of the hazards of the job.

"Sure," he said. "I've had a couple companies contact me about their specialized cups, so that'd be kind of cool. One of them is made of Kevlar, so it's pretty much indestructible and I think we're going to put one to the test here in the next day or two. Maybe some ammunition, explosives, stuff like that. We're going to put it to the test."

The guy is never at a loss for comical words.

"Any sort of time you can get peace of mind in that area, it's always great, but these are such random incidents, such freak accidents that happen, that you're really setting yourself up any time you get back there," he said. "You just never know what can and can't happen."

Joseph expressed his gratitude to the Orioles for their outpouring of love and support, and UMMC for taking such good care of him. He also appreciated how manager Buck Showalter got him in contact with former major leaguer John Kruk, who was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1994.

"There is one thing that was super-important that I did want to talk just briefly about," Joseph said. "There's probably hundreds of kids that do get hit in the groin area, and what I had forgotten was that John had testicular cancer and he had an incident in the playoffs one year where he did get hit and endured that pain and endured a lot of what was going on. Months later, when he did go to get checked, that's when it was revealed that he did have testicular cancer.

"He was telling me that they couldn't be 100 percent sure whether or not the injury was the cause or wasn't the cause, but I was reminded, too, when I went there that if I was to let this injury go, that was one of the things they talked about. If I wouldn't have gone in and gotten checked and if I wouldn't have had the surgery, there's a much greater chance of that testicular cancer. So I guess for all the kids out there, I want to remind you that if you do have an incident, if you do have an accident in your groin area, don't be afraid to speak up and tell your parents or tell somebody that you trust that can take you to the hospital and get you checked out, because some of these injuries are preventable.

"John wonders, and I wonder, what if I went in there and said something right away, maybe I could have prevented testicular cancer. So I think that's a big thing, and luckily I have a training staff here that's very encouraging that we need to go be proactive in this. That's something that I think is pretty important."

Update: The Yankees broke a scoreless tie in the third inning when Jacoby Ellsbury singled with one out, advanced on a wild pitch and scored with two outs on Alex Rodriguez's soft single into center field. Kevin Gausman has thrown 55 pitches in three innings.