Red Sox: David Price won’t need elbow surgery after all

The Boston Red Sox catch a tremendous break with the news that pitcher David Price won’t need surgery to repair his ailing elbow.

The World Series aspirations for the Boston Red Sox are back on!

After a bit of a scare this week, a nervous fan base can rest easy now that it has been revealed that left-handed starter David Price will avoid surgery on the sore elbow that prompted a visit to renowned orthopedist Dr. James Andrews.

Manager John Farrell revealed to reporters on Friday that the plan is for Price to rest for 7-10 days before being reevaluated. We’re not out of the woods yet, but this is certainly an encouraging sign. Many of us feared the worst, that Price would be forced to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery, so this news represents the best case scenario.

Cancel the plans to go searching for bargain-bin innings-eaters from the remaining free agent scrap pile. No need to give up more valuable prospects to add another ace. We no longer have to fear being one more injury away from seeing Henry Owens, Brian Johnson or Roenis Elias on the mound at Fenway Park!

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With Price presumably now back in the mix, Boston should enter the regular season with their vaunted trio of aces leading the rotation. As long as Price, Rick Porcello and Chris Sale all remain healthy and pitch anywhere near expectations, the Red Sox are in great shape to defender their division crown and return to the postseason.

It’s been a tumultuous spring for the health of the Red Sox pitching staff. Eduardo Rodriguez (knee), Steven Wright (shoulder) and Drew Pomeranz (elbow) are all coming back from injuries that delayed their participation in camp. They each have resumed throwing and are back on track to begin the season on time, but for a little while there it was starting to look like the final two rotation spots were going to be handed to whoever was healthy enough to pitch. When word of Price’s elbow issues came out yesterday, concern shifted to the concept of needing all three of them to stick in the rotation.

Price’s cryptic tweet this afternoon foreshadowed what we would learn soon after about his status. He seemed to be in good spirits, so the doctors must have given him good news, right? That’s what we all hoped, but we still had to wait for confirmation. Now we have it.

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We still have to wait and see how Price responds to the time off and there’s still significant risk that he begins the season on the disabled list if his progress stalls beyond the initial time frame. At this point though it appears the Red Sox have dodged the potentially devastating bullet of Price missing the entire season.