Michael Brantley knows the drill.

For a third straight year, the oft-injured Cleveland Indians outfielder arrived at spring training still recovering from surgery - this time, on his right ankle. So, when a group of reporters, including MLB.com's Jordan Bastian, approached him Thursday morning for a check-in, the two-time All-Star was prepared to answer those all-too-familiar questions.

So prepared, in fact, he decided to conduct the scrum himself:

I don't know why we do this every year. You answer the questions for me, or do you want me to do my own interview and you just have the mic for me?

Brant, how are you feeling? I'm feeling good. I'm getting better each and every day. I'm glad to be out there with my teammates. I'm running and every day I'm getting stronger and I'm really happy where I'm at.

Is Opening Day a target? I don't have no targets. I just really want to take it one day at a time. Everything is progressing well. I'm very happy with where I am. It's an artifical deadline. I just want to make sure that when I come back, I'm 100 percent and ready to go, so I can be there for a long season.

You want me to keep going?

What activities are you doing? I'm hitting. I'm running. I'm throwing. Yes, I get to take BP again today. I'm very excited. It's a good group of guys helping me in the locker room. The medical staff and doctors, they always take care of me. To get me back here again, I just really appreciate the effort that everybody put in for helping me.

Anything else? Yeah, we have a great group of guys in this locker room that are going to try really hard.

Should I keep going?

Brantley, who turns 31 in May, has played just 101 games over the last two seasons due to a litany of shoulder, biceps, and ankle injuries. In 2017, he was in the lineup on Opening Day and enjoyed an impressive first half, hitting .304/.367/.440 with five homers and 17 doubles through the All-Star break. However, ankle problems sidelined him in August and limited him to just eight games over the final two months of the regular season. Despite that, he was included on the Indians' roster for the American League Division Series, going 1-for-11 (.091) with four strikeouts in three games.

In November, the Indians exercised their $12-million club option on Brantley for 2018.