Spring training has sprung

~ Torn ligaments hampered the Cards outfielder the second half of the 2006 season.

JUPITER, Fla. -- St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Juan Encarnacion arrived at spring training Monday prepared to ease his way back into the batters' box.

Encarnacion has not swung a bat since December, when he had surgery on his left wrist to repair torn ligaments. And he is not in any rush to face Chris Carpenter, Adam Wainwright or any other teammates during spring training drills.

"We're taking it slow, Encarnacion said.

Encarnacion won't swing a bat for at least a week. Then he'll start by hitting off a tee and "progressing from there," he said.

The team and Encarnacion are hopeful he'll be ready for the start of the season.

"We need him," manager Tony La Russa said.

The Cardinals managed pretty well without a healthy Encarnacion last season, at least in the postseason. Encarnacion injured the wrist around midseason and felt the pain the rest of the year.

"I swung and felt pain and the next day I felt OK," Encarnacion said. "After that it started hurting and I played with that pretty much the whole time."

And it showed. Encarnacion hit .367 in June and his average then dropped each month before bottoming out at .182 in the playoffs. He had just four home runs and 14 extra base hits the final three months of the season, including playoffs.

Encarnacion started the first two games of the World Series and appeared in one other. He was hitless in eight at-bats as the Cardinals defeated the Tigers in five games.

"That's a tough thing to have working against you as a hitter," La Russa said about a sore wrist. "But he still had a productive season."

Encarnacion, an above-average right fielder defensively, finished his first season in St. Louis hitting .278 with 19 home runs and 79 RBIs, all above his career averages.

But the postseason is where Encarnacion has struggled. In 2003 as a member of the Marlins, he sat when the designated hitter was used at Yankee Stadium. He was 2-of-11 in the World Series and has a career batting average of .105 in nine World Series games.