Red Sox: Josh Taylor and Darwinzon Hernandez begin rehab post COVID

Red Sox pitching staff may get a boost with relief pair beginning rehab

We’re four games into the 2020 Red Sox season and let’s just say things haven’t quite gone to plan. The offense kicked in the door and then went missing while the pitching has been front and center, and not for good reasons. Boston’s starters are allowing teams to walk all over them, forcing the offense to break their backs to get anything going and the relievers to hold the wall.

Luckily for the Red Sox, they have a pair of strong relievers beginning their road back to the big leagues this week. Both Josh Taylor and Darwinzon Hernandez tested positive for COVID ahead of camp. Each has passed the necessary number of test to clear their health and allow them to re-join the team in Boston. Ron Roenicke spoke on the return of his hard-throwing southpaws and the plan to get them up to speed this season.

"“They’re still a ways away,” Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke said about both relievers. “We’ve got to go through live BP. Josh will throw today. He’ll take a day or two off. He’ll throw another live BP, take a day or two off. And then he’ll throw basically a simulated game.”"

Though things sound good as of now, we’ve already seen with Eduardo Rodriguez’s recovery, that we still don’t know a damn thing about the coronavirus and its long-term effects. Today saw Taylor take the mound and throw batting practice at McCoy Stadium. It was a promising return for the lefty as he struck out two of the four batters that he battled. Now he’ll get a few days off to rest and recover before the next phase of his return.

For Hernandez, his road begins with tomorrow’s batting practice. Per Roenicke, he’ll follow a similar path as Taylor where it’ll be a short outing followed by a few days of rest. The pair of lefties would be a welcomed addition to the Boston pitching staff but rushing them back to action would do far more harm than good for all involved.

With the way things are going for the Red Sox if the team continues down this path, the season may be lost, and bringing the duo back could be a waste. Hopefully, we don’t get to that point and we can see the duo pitching in meaningful games in 2020, especially after the solid campaigns they had last year.

Taylor and Hernandez become go-to relievers for Red Sox

Taylor and Hernandez both made their big league debuts last season and each had some ups and downs. As the season progressed and Alex Cora began to mix in some younger arms into the bullpen, we would see these two pretty often. Hell, Taylor would become one of Cora’s most trusted guys down the stretch.

In 2019, Taylor finished 2-2 with a 3.04 ERA through 47.1 innings. His K/BB ratio of 62/16 was off the charts good and allowed him to finish with an 11.8 K/9. He would be added to a battery of the more trusted relievers in the Boston bullpen alongside Marcus Walden, Matt Barnes, and Brandon Workman. If he can get healthy and get back to his 2019 form, I look for him to be used in a similar fashion with those three.

"“And then we are trying to decide whether we need to get him to two innings or not,” Roenicke added. “So all those things come into play. And how he does and feels really come into play in how quickly we can do this.”"