Machado: "It's been a while since I felt this healthy and good"

SARASOTA, Fla. - Orioles third baseman Manny Machado said he's been doing full baseball activities for a couple of weeks, with the exception of moving laterally to field ground balls, and today's minicamp provided a demonstration.

Machado hit in the indoor cage and took batting practice outside, shagged fly balls and did agility drills with head athletic trainer Richie Bancells, sprinting up the first base line and simulating going from home plate to second on a double.

The surgically repaired right knee never seemed to bother Machado, who was all smiles as he walked off the field for the last time.

"I feel great. I haven't felt like this in - it's been a while," said Machado, who had surgery on Aug. 27 to repair a partial tear of a ligament in his knee. "It's been a while since I felt this healthy and good. My body feels great, my mind is clear. I'm excited to get back out there. I'm itching, actually. I haven't been itching like this for spring training since my first year of pro ball. Just excited to get the season rolling."

Machado, who underwent a similar procedure on his left knee in 2013, believes he should be full-go for spring training. He won't make any predictions for opening day on April 6, but he's optimistic.

"Oh, yeah. I feel great," he said. "Right now I feel like I'm ready to go come spring training. I'm ready to roll. Finally have a spring training. I haven't had one in a while. That's the first thing that's on my mind. Hopefully I'll be ready if nothing comes up, nothing that we can't control pops up. Any injuries. That's part of the game. But other than that, my knees feel good, my body feels great. I'm ready to roll.

"Like I said, my knees feel great, my body feels amazing, so I don't think there's something holding me back on that perspective. But knock on wood I don't get injured on any other stuff that might pop up that happens. But I'll by ready to roll, I'll be ready to play baseball come Day One."

Machado showed up at minicamp this morning, changed clothes and headed outdoors for the final workout. He's been rehabbing since the season ended except for a month break to get married in Paris and go on his honeymoon. Much of his time has been spent in Sarasota with Dave Walker, the Orioles minor league medical coordinator. He's also worked out in Miami.

"It was just to come out here today and see these guys," he said. "See Buck (Showalter), see Richie, see the training staff, see the coaches. Finally meet our new hitting coach (Scott Coolbaugh). My goal was just to come out here and show them that I'm ready to go. I know they put a lot of faith in me and I've been working with D-Walk the whole offseason. He's done a great job with me, getting me back to where I need to be. I don't think they could have done a better job.

"I'm just excited with where I'm at right now and we're just ready to roll this year. Roll the dice like we've been doing and play baseball. Play baseball and have fun and keep enjoying it."

Asked if he's confident that the knee issues are in the past, Machado replied, "It's behind me. Like I told my wife, I've got two brand new knees that I could roll with and do what I've got to do. I think I've passed that stage of being confident. I think now it's just a matter of playing games and getting in that routine of playing every day and being on that grind just so I can get that comfort level that I need. I know I'm not there right now with the comfort, but I know playing games and getting at-bats, that will definitely come."

Machado has been working on his hand-eye coordination in the field. Moving side to side will come shortly before spring training.

"I've just been on my knees and been stationary," he said. "Not because of any problems. I'm trying to be smart about it. I know come spring training I'll be catching a lot and hitting a lot. I'm just being a little smarter this year with how much pressure to put on my knees, to put on my body.

"I've been through it once. I kind of already know what to expect and what the process is and that helps out a little bit, knowing where you're at, even knowing how good you feel. But at the end of the day, once you get out there and you just start playing, that's a different animal. You can't really prepare for that.

"I think that's where the next obstacle is come spring training, see how I feel after games. I know when I came back last year I know how I felt and it took me a little bit to get over that hump. I mean, hopefully that hump is spring training and not during the year."

Showalter hasn't discussed any sort of schedule with Machado.

"Not really, not really," Machado said. "I think coming here, we didn't talk about that. He just wanted to see where I'm at. Obviously I told him I'll be ready. I think I'll be ready. I think I'll be ready to be out there come Day One of spring. We're just taking it how it is, not putting any, 'You're going to be ready here, you're going to playing there.' No, 'Hey, you feel right?' Go out there and do what you can do and play baseball, and have fun at the same time."

Taking a break for his wedding and honeymoon allowed Machado to put baseball in its proper perspective and give his body a rest from the daily workouts.

"Honestly, I think the wedding actually helped me out throughout all this," he said. "I think it actually helped me feel better just taking that little time off not doing anything, just having a normal offseason of not doing anything for a month and just let your body take a rest. I know my body's been taking a beating these last two years with all the rehab and the games and this.

"I think that getting married and having that honeymoon was perfect timing for God to get me away from all this and bring me back to my senses of how life is. Because when I came back, I felt like, I felt like freaking God. I felt awesome, I felt great, my body was feeling great. I think that's why I'm in this position now that I could do what I've been doing, because I took that little time off and kind of let my body heal completely."

Machado said Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed the surgery on both knees, will examine him one more time in Los Angeles before spring training "just so he can give me the, 'Here you go, here's the clearance.'

"But I think by now I'm pretty much cleared. Obviously, I've got to go over there for medical reasons, just get the green light."

The Orioles are counting on the returns of Machado, catcher Matt Wieters and first baseman Chris Davis to offset the free agent losses of Nick Markakis and Nelson Cruz.

"Those are two big keys of our team that left," Machado said. "That's part of the game. That happens. We all kind of knew that Nelson was probably not going to come back. Markakis was a different story. I don't know what happened there. It sucks that they're not there with us.

"We've got the same team that we had in 2012 and 2013. That's how I see it, and we were all healthy in 2013 and we came up short. I got injured. Things happened, but I think we're all positive coming into this year. That's something this team has. We've just got to play with each other and see how it goes and roll the dice.

"We're not going to put in expectations. That's something that we've never thought of. Orioles are going to be in last place, Orioles are going to be in first. We don't care about it. The only thing we can control is how we play the game and how we play, hard, and play it the Oriole Way like we've been doing."

Here are pictures and videos from the final day of minicamp: