Red Sox: Eduardo Rodriguez’ status unclear following shutdown from baseball activities

Red Sox lefty Eduardo Rodriguez suffers from minor complications.

Eduardo Rodriguez was already expected to miss out on his opportunity to start on Opening Day. Now it appears the Boston Red Sox will be without him for longer than expected.

Rodriguez tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, delaying his arrival to summer camp. He had to be symptom-free and produce two negative tests before he could travel to Boston but he has since been cleared and rejoined the team. The time he missed prevented Rodriguez have having sufficient time to rebuild his arm strength following the four-month hiatus since spring training was suspended by the pandemic.

Manager Ron Roenicke revealed to reporters on Thursday that Rodriguez is still suffering from some minor complications from his battle with COVID-19. The lefty’s progress has stalled once again as he’ll need to shut down baseball activities for a week before being reevaluated.

“In Eddie’s case, they’ve discovered some minor complications with him,” said Roenicke. “Because of it, we’re taking everything very seriously in this matter and are gong to shut Eddie down from baseball activities for a time.”

Roenicke remains confident that Rodriguez will pitch this season but when he can return remains an enormous questions mark on the eve of Opening Day. The Red Sox are downplaying the severity of this setback but even if he does fully recover within a week, it will still take time for him to ramp back up again.

It could be several weeks before Rodriguez is ready to pitch in a game. That would deprive the Red Sox of their best pitcher for a significant chunk of this 60-game season. Most pitchers in the rotation are only expected to make about a dozen starts. Can Rodriguez realistically make more than eight? Even that total might be optimistic.

In the meantime, Rodriguez’ rotation spot will be filled by one of the several replacement-level options that Boston picked up off the scrap heap. The Red Sox will be at a disadvantage in those games compared to what their chances would have been with E-Rod on the mound. His absence potentially costs them a few wins.

While that wouldn’t seem significant over the course of a full 162-game season, every game matters more during this 60-game sprint. We could have talked ourselves into 32+ wins and a shot at a Wild Card spot but if Rodriguez’ absence costs the Red Sox a few games to dip them below .500, forget it.

Nathan Eovaldi is slated to start on Opening Day against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday, followed by Martin Perez and Ryan Weber. Boston will need to scramble to patch together innings for the other two rotation spots. Based on the options on the Opening Day roster, Dylan Covey is one possibility. The Red Sox could go with at least one “Opener” to fill a rotation spot with a bullpen game or piggyback a couple of pitchers who can each give them a few innings to begin the game.

The Red Sox could have navigated their early season schedule without Rodriguez if he was only missing a start or two. With the lefty now sidelined indefinitely, Boston’s thin starting rotation will be a more glaring weakness than we imagined.