Red Sox’ Rusney Castillo sidelined with oblique strain
By Conor Duffy
The Red Sox have received their first injury of the new season with the news that outfielder Rusney Castillo has an oblique strain and will be out for at least a week.
Castillo suffered the injury in his last at-bat during the Red Sox’ exhibition game against Boston College yesterday and left the game with soreness in his side. One day later we have the full story as manager John Farrell cleared Castillo’s condition with the media today.
"He’s going to be down for some time. I don’t have a time frame to give you or projected length, but he’s going through some treatment to calm down the strain right now, and he’ll do rotational exercises and rehab when he’s ready for it.There’s caution to the progression, there’s no doubt. [Pain] tolerance, for one. How aggressive you become to build that back. We just want to be careful of a setback, because everything is rotational in this game."
Farrell went on to say that Castillo would miss “more than a week,” though when asked if the injury would affect Castillo’s status for Opening Day, he said “too early to tell.”
Castillo, who slashed .333/.400/.528 in 10 games with the Red Sox last season after signing a $72.5M deal out of Cuba, was in the midst of a position battle for the starting center field job this spring training alongside Mookie Betts. The 27-year old Castillo brings excellent speed and defense to the table in addition to a good bat with solid power and figures to fit into Boston’s future in a big way.
However, his immediate impact might be a little bit limited in the early going. Given how early in the spring we are, it’s entirely reasonable for the Red Sox to be incredibly cautious with Castillo, who played winter ball in Puerto Rico for a good deal of the offseason. The team will hope that his recovery goes smoothly and that Castillo will be ready to contribute by Opening Day. It’s unfortunate to be seeing injuries on the Red Sox, but in a way it’s a bit of a milestone. Injuries are a part of baseball and with Boston’s first minor injury out of the way, it really seems like baseball is back!