Red Sox: Where current injury woes rank in value and significance
With the 2017 season starting this weekend, the injury bug has not been kind to the Red Sox. Hoping to get the injuries out of the way early, here’s a look at their impact going forward.
As much as it is unavoidable over the stretch of the regular season spanning 162 games, injuries are a part of a typical major league season. Bodies break down at certain points, and nagging injuries sometimes drag on for longer than expected, while other guys kill rehabilitation and join their respective teams in no time. For the Boston Red Sox, it appears the injury bug is alive and well.
Spanning back to the beginning of last season, injuries have hit the Red Sox particularly hard, and oddly harder, their acquisitions. Carson Smith, Craig Kimbrel, David Price, Tyler Thornburg, Josh Rutledge and now even Mitch Moreland have been down and out at some point since their Red Sox service time started kicking.
With the Red Sox opening their season in a Monday matinee Fenway-style against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Sox are faced with a challenge as the season starts trying to overcome that deficit, noticeable in the depth of the infield but more glaringly in the bullpen.
As challenging as the injuries may be to overcome, better it be in early April than in the dog days of August in the midst of what theoretically could be close in the AL East race.
Before the season gets going, let’s take a look at those injuries, ranking their significance for importance sake based on how long the player looks to be out and what their respective absences will mean for the Red Sox.
Mitch Moreland’s flu bug
The Red Sox offseason solution against right-handers at first base, Moreland was sent home to Boston early from spring training with a bout of what appears to be the flu.
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Per the Boston Herald’s Jason Mastrodonato via John Farrell, Moreland will be quarantined for three days in hopes that the first baseman will be ready to go for the season opener Monday.
After the bevy of injuries the Red Sox have experienced this spring, Moreland contracting the flu heading into the last weekend of games should come to no surprise to Red Sox fans, players or staff. It’s something of an annoyance, but able to be overcome.
Though if Moreland can’t break camp with the Red Sox and be over the bug by Monday, they’re noticeably thin at first base.
Hanley Ramirez‘s ability to throw the ball with his shoulder issues is still in question, and Josh Rutledge, who’d been working at first base for a week or so for likely emergency situations, now has a hamstring issue that will keep him off of the opening day roster.
Go figure.
Most likely, Moreland will be able to go Monday. In the event that he can’t, the prime candidates to fill in for a couple days might come from the Red Sox within, and the roster spot being taken by a utility player — ergo players recently optioned like Marco Hernandez or Steve Selsky — with Brock Holt maybe becoming super utility for a day and playing first for some early season fun.
Carson Smith’s continued effect on the Red Sox bullpen
I’ve had to remind myself a couple times this spring that Carson Smith is still a member of the Red Sox. Relievers in baseball are abundant and names get lost in the flow.
After getting Smith and Roenis Elias for the mediocre Wade Miley prior to last season, the “hype” surrounding the reliever was short lived as an elbow injury followed by a brief return following rehabilitation leading up to Tommy John surgery has had spiraling effects even with the pitcher sidelined since early 2016.
The lack of Smith’s presence in the bullpen will have further ramifications, this time due to another Red Sox right-handed reliever injury.
With Tyler Thornburg being shut down because of a shoulder impingement, the Red Sox are going to be carrying three left-handed relievers out of the bullpen, as both Robby Scott and Fernando Abad will make the opening day roster to go along with bullpen lock Robbie Ross Jr.
Now, Smith’s absence is not responsible for Thornburg’s shoulder not responding to the Red Sox throwing program, but the Red Sox will have to turn to Joe Kelly as the setup man until Thornburg can get back.
Smith himself as recently as yesterday has felt the lingering effects of the injury, as per Tim Britton of ProJo, Smith felt some tightness following his first bullpen session post-Tommy John last week.
For Smith, it appears that June is still the target date for the return of right-hander, thought that is understandably in flux at the moment with the delicacy of rehabilitation during the recovery process of such a major surgery.
“I know it’s a long process, and June is the target date,” Smith said. “It could be pushed back at some point, just because I’ve seen other guys go through the process, and they get to this point and there are things and obstacles they have to overcome when they start to manipulate the ball a little more. We’ll see how it goes, but I’m very happy with June as a target.”
Josh Rutledge’s injury and Marco Hernandez replacing him
Who would’ve thought that the presence or lack thereof of Josh Rutledge would become a storyline a week before the season starts?
The 27-year-old, who has hit a modest .276 in 67 career games for the Red Sox dating back to 2015, emerged this spring as a viable option off the bench at the corner positions against left-handed pitching to start the season.
That last bit changed this week, as Rutledge pulled a hamstring, putting his chances of making the opening day roster at a significant disadvantage.
Josh Rutledge has a left hamstring strain. Difficult time for him to get injured. Was supposed to play some corner IF against lefties.
— Jason Mastrodonato (@JMastrodonato) March 28, 2017
It’s pretty atypical that a bench option is providing such an anomaly to Red Sox management about who to replace the at-bats with, sacrificing average for weakness or the ability to play first base with Hanley Ramirez’s continued shoulder woes, yet Rutledge going down has done that.
As earlier stated, Red Sox management is more than likely considering infielders Marco Hernandez and Steve Selsky.
While Hernandez and Selsky both performed well in spring games — they hit .379 and .356 respectively — they both do not have experience playing first base. Granted, neither did Rutledge, but he’d been working there.
The favorite pick among Red Sox social media has been without a doubt Hernandez, and reasonably so. The young infielder has been laying in the waits while performing well in his Red Sox cameos.
The question with Hernandez though, is his ability to hit left-handed major league pitching. This is something that, according to Evan Drellich of CSNNE, Hernandez has an aptitude for doing at the minor league level.
He hit .328 vs. them at Triple-A Pawtucket last season in 67 at-bats. His clip at Pawtucket in 2015 was .315 in 54 at-bats, with a .318 average against them that season in 88 at-bats for Double-A Portland.
For what it’s worth, Hernandez was 4-8 last year at the major league level against left-handed pitching.
Tyler Thornburg and the Red Sox shoulder strength program
As one of the key acquisitions that Dave Dombrowski wheeled following the Red Sox departure from the ALDS last fall, Thornburg was another kind of unknown to many Red Sox fans.
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A bright spot in the dumpster fire that currently is Milwaukee Brewer baseball at the moment and for the foreseeable future, Thornburg was seen as a solution to many of the Red Sox bullpen’s inconsistencies heading into this season.
While he still plausibly is, Thornburg has gone down with a shoulder injury, suffering an impingement in his shoulder that has brought some heat on Red Sox manager John Farrell, Dombrowksi and the Red Sox offseason shoulder strength program.
Because of the injury that will keep him out at least a week, Thornburg is guaranteed to start the season on the disabled list and not break camp with the Red Sox.
Thornburg maintains, and has reiterated, that he believes his shoulder injury is a result of the fatigue caused by the throwing program.
Per Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald:
“If anything, it might have fatigued my arm a little bit before the first outing,” Thornburg said. “Or it possibly could’ve pointed out some weaknesses in my shoulder or something that wasn’t working properly. That’s all stuff we were figuring out in the last couple days. Really feel like we should work on certain areas of my arm to keep those a lot stronger and should help absolutely everything else.”
Farrell was also quoted as discounting that the throwing program had anything to do with the injury.
“There’s been a lot written targeting our shoulder program here. I would discount that completely… To suggest that his situation or his symptoms are now the result of our shoulder program, that’s false.”
The discrepancy in communication and agreement on the part of Thornburg and Farrell does not look pretty. Added further is that the Red Sox are now in the same position to start the year that they were last year, with a late-innings bullpen piece out to begin the year leaving the Red Sox to depend on some unproven arms.
They’ll carry three left-handers so start the year, the most unproven being that of Robby Scott but also arguably Fernando Abad, while using the heavily inconsistent Joe Kelly as the eighth-inning guy, who hopefully — thanks to crowd noise and beer sales ending (?) — will be able to be adequate until Thornburg’s shoulder is taken care of.
David Price’s status going forward
While still a ways away from returning, David Price’s absence from the rotation will be duly-noted to start the year in Red Sox world. One third of the trio of Red Sox aces in the top of the rotation, Price was looking for this year to be a year of self-imposed redemption, a revenge tour of sorts to both the American League and the lefty’s self-perceived image in the eyes of Red Sox fans.
Making up for Price’s absence, the Red Sox rotation will still have four of its five starters with previous All-Star experience, the odd man out in this situation if that’s a bad thing, being Eduardo Rodriguez.
Still though, Price’s absence is a tough subject. His rehabilitation could be simply a delaying of what may be an inevitable elbow surgery. There’s the looming opt-out option for Price after the 2018 season. Will he want to opt-out then, will he be healthy enough?
As it is, the success of the Red Sox may largely be contingent on the health of Price. A rotation with the presence of Rick Porcello, Chris Sale and Price is about as unbeatable as you can put on paper when considering the Red Sox offense.
His latest progression had him make 30 throws from 75-90 feet.
Given the amount of money Price is making combined with the dependence that the Red Sox have on him earning that money, his injury gives the greatest concern. Sure, they have Porcello. Sale, Pomeranz, Wright and Rodriguez, but the tone of the Red Sox season going forward may be set by what Price does or doesn’t do.