The Boston Red Sox gave insight into the future of David Price this weekend as it was announced the ace would need surgery on his injured left wrist.
This season is effectively over for the Red Sox as they head into their final 2019 meeting with the Rays tonight. With just six games left in the year and the postseason long-gone, Boston is beginning to turn their attention to 2020. That transition took another step this weekend as it was announced that David Price would be getting surgery on his injured left wrist this week.
It’s been a hell of a year for Price as he never truly got his footing in this season. There were glimpses here and there of his mastery but they would be fleeting. The southpaw was first added to the IL on August 8th and eventually made his return at the beginning of September. Unfortunately for Price and the Red Sox, he would last just two innings before getting pulled.
There was plenty of mystery on whether Boston would try to get any more out of David this season but we would soon learn the answer as he was officially shut down last week.
It made perfect sense to not push another start out of Price with the season-long past anything redeeming. With the surgery scheduled for Thursday to remove the cyst on Price’s left wrist, he and the Red Sox can turn the page towards next year.
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In what would become a throwaway season for the Sox, Price was still able to get a 7-5 record through 107.1 IP. The numbers aren’t something pretty to look at as he also posted the second-highest ERA his career at 4.28. But if the cyst was there longer than we knew and contributed to a larger portion of 2019 than previously thought, that would explain a whole lot about David Price this year.
Not only do the Red Sox need Price to get healthy for next season but well beyond that also. He’s got three years left on his contract and with the extension for Chris Sale ready to kick in, Boston is counting heavily on the duo for the foreseeable future. As dramatic as it sounds, this surgery could be make or break for Price and the Red Sox. If he isn’t able to get fully healthy then they’ll still have a massive hole in their starting rotation.
“Obviously, you never know. They might go in there and find something else,” he said. “As of now, everything seems like we’ll take care of the cyst and he should be fine. I don’t know what the recovery time is. They’re going to talk in the next few days. It seems like it’s something simple.”
This feels like the right decision by both the Red Sox and Price. He’ll have time to heal and rehab in order to be ready for spring training and the new season. They also tried other remedies before deciding on surgery which in some cases can be the best decision. Rushing into surgery for an injury doesn’t always yield the best results. If Thursday goes well and this winter brings a strong recovery, I think Price could be a force once again in 2020.