Repaired vision keys Kotchman's turnaround for Rays

Casey Kotchman hit .217 last season for the Mariners, which is not good almost any way you look at it, except if you look at this way: Kotchman's eyesight was so bad he had trouble seeing clearly while walking down the street.

The Rays first baseman said he had a bacterial infection in his tear glands that resulted in a constant case of blurred vision, similar he said to what many experience when they first wake up or step outside on a cold morning.

"It was really bad," Kotchman said.

How bad?

"It was like looking through a dirty windshield," he said.

Kotchman said the eye test he took at the start of the 2010 spring training showed his depth perception was off.

"It makes sense it could have gotten a little worse, a little worse," he said. "Then it got to the point where something needed to be done. I can't do this anymore."

Released by the Mariners after last season, Kotchman said his offseason to-do list consisted of two things: hook on with another team and get his eyes fixed.

"That was the first order of business this offseason was to get that cleaned up," he said of his eyes.

Last October, Kotchman visited Tom Tooma, the Newport Beach, Calif., ophthalmologist who performed lasik surgery on Kotchman in 2004.

Kotchman said he wasn't worried the treatments would make things worse.

"I'm thinking we can land on the moon, we should be able to fix the eyes a little bit," he said.

In four painful treatments, Tooma used laser to loosen the tear glands under each eye.

After the fourth visit, Kotchman said Tooma pulled back his lower eye lids and squeezed.

"It's supposed to be clear and it's coming out like toothpaste," Kotchman said.

The improvement was dramatic.

"Just walking down the street, you can see the lights, streetlights aren't blurry," Kotchman said.

And that leads to this: Kotchman, who signed a minor-league contract with the Rays in January, entered Tuesday's game batting .355, the highest average on the team though he doesn't have enough at-bats to place him among the league leaders.

Rays manager Joe Maddon said that's a result of Kotchman returning to the ways that made him a successful hitter earlier in his career.

"He's made some nice adjustments," Maddon said. "Right now, he looks hitterish, nice and calm at the plate."

Kotchman said his success since being called up the day Manny Ramirez "retired" has something to do with his approach at the plate and a lot to do with his eyes.

"First and foremost are your eyes," Kotchman said. "You got to see the ball first, and when you're comfortable seeing, you can trust yourself to react according to what you see."