Christian Vazquez‘s elbow injury is much worse than we initially thought.
The Red Sox catcher will need Tommy John surgery on his right elbow after a recent MRI “found something” out of the ordinary.
This is bad news for the 24 year-old catcher, who is praised by pretty much every pitcher for whom he catches. Just this past January, Boston starter Joe Kelly called Vazquez a “Mini Yadi,” comparing him to Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina.
Vazquez has not played in a game since March 13 after experiencing €œdiscomfort€ in his elbow. While he played in minor league games last week and even caught for Kelly, he was under orders to only throw back to the pitcher and has only thrown back to bases €œa couple of times.
The Red Sox moved Vazquez to the 60-day disabled list and traded for catcher Sandy Leon of the Nationals on Monday, giving some indication of the team’s plans. As Vazquez is not a pitcher, the recovery time for the surgery will not be as lengthy as it otherwise could have been, but he will still miss the entirety of the 2015 season. The Red Sox will enter the season with some combination of Ryan Hanigan, Sandy Leon, and Humberto Quintero behind the plate and will anxiously await the arrival of top prospect Blake Swihart.
“We’re still in a little bit of fact-finding mode right now,” Farrell said. “There’s no clear-cut plan going forward. Hopefully in the coming days we’ll have some more definite information and what is the follow-up plan after that.”
With this major setback for Vazquez, Hanigan will get the Opening Day start and assume a bigger role behind the plate this season until Swihart is major league ready. At BoSox Injection, we all wish Christian the best with his surgery and hope that he recovers fully and can once again contribute for the Red Sox.
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