Despite ankle, Rays' Upton still wants to play this year

Pondering before Wednesday night's game what the final weeks of a miserable Tampa Bay Rays season might hold, B.J. Upton envisioned simply trying to make the best of a now-meaningless closing stretch.

"Things haven't gone the way we've wanted them to all year," he said quietly, sitting in front of his locker at Yankee Stadium. "When it seems like it can't get any worse, it does."

You don't need to be a prophet to understand how true that sentiment rings with the 2009 Rays, and Upton in particular. So it shouldn't have come as a surprise that a few hours later the embattled center fielder badly misplayed a ball and had difficulty getting to two others before being pulled from the game after only five innings.

Upton's sore left ankle, which had kept him out of the lineup for five of the previous six games, was the cause cited by manager Joe Maddon. In a season that began with Upton struggling to recover from shoulder surgery he had during the winter to correct a problem he battled all of 2008, it's only fitting that another injury could be the finishing touch on his least productive year since arriving in the majors.

Maddon said Upton will be given several days off, and Upton said he thinks the only thing that will help him recover is some time spent completely off his feet. Might he be shut down for the season with 22 games to go? Upton hopes not.

"I want to play again," he said.

Returning to the field sometime in the next week or so would at least give Upton a chance to put something positive in his head as he looks forward to an offseason that should have a different feel than those in recent memory.

As it stands right now, Upton is hitting only .236, by far the worst number of his career, and his on-base percentage is a mere .309 - well below his impressive .383 and .386 marks the last two seasons. And though he has tallied 30 doubles this season, he hasn't driven the ball nearly as well as in the past, as indicated by a paltry .364 slugging percentage.

He believes his difficulties at the plate are tied directly to his return from surgery, which sidelined him into spring training and kept him on the disabled list for the first week of the season.

"It was just kind of, all right, go rehab, and if you're ready to play, you're ready to play," Upton said. "I never had time to really work and get the repetitions."

Even worse, the shoulder remains an issue, something in the background that he can't quite seem to overcome.

"It doesn't hurt by any means, but it's just not fully there, fully healthy," he said. "It's healthy enough to play, definitely. Sometimes it aches, sometimes it just feels tired - it's never that consistency that I'm looking for. ...

"I think with a month or so of rest and a full offseason to just - not necessarily stay off of it, but there won't be a healing process and there won't be a rehab. It'll just be maintenance, and I think that's going to be good."

Upton already has pondered some changes to his offseason routine. At the top of the list is putting on some muscle he hopes will help make him more durable. There isn't a hint of bulk on his sinewy body, and he said he wouldn't mind reporting to Port Charlotte in February weighing about 205 pounds - well over his current listed weight of 185.

He also plans to start hitting right away in his offseason program, something he couldn't do last year because of the surgery. Whatever it takes to turn things around in 2010 and erase the memories of a truly lost season, he's prepared to do.

"Next season will be definitely a different story," Upton said.

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at