Eli White’s injury halts Red Sox breakout at worst possible time

There's never a good time to get injured, but the last few weeks of the regular season has to rank among the worst. With so much at stake over the next few weeks, — plus whatever lies beyond in the playoffs — September is when a team would most prefer to have all their best players healthy. Unfortunately, the Boston Red Sox can't count themselves among those lucky few.

Eli White is heading to the injured list with a right foot injury from his attempted leaping grab in center field earlier this week against the Angels. He joins a growing list of key Red Sox hitters on the IL including Ceddanne Rafaela, Willson Contreras, Masataka Yoshida and Curtis Mead.

In his place comes Anthony Seigler, who has proven capable of holding down the fort in a pinch this year. However, losing White so shortly after Rafaela is really going to strain the team's outfield depth, especially since he was in the midst of a mini-breakout after getting traded to Boston at the deadline.

Red Sox's outfield depth will be tested with Eli White joining Ceddanne Rafaela on IL

The original trade for White with the Atlanta Braves was both a head-scratcher and an under-the-radar move, since it happened mere hours after the Adley Rutschman blockbuster and cost the Red Sox even more pitching depth in the form of Tyler Uberstine. Add on the fact that White had a seemingly superfluous profile given that Braiden Ward had been in the organization since spring training, and it was tough to understand the logic behind the deal.

Craig Breslow knew what he was doing, since White has been a huge asset to the team over the past six weeks. His 86 wRC+ might not seem like much to write home about, but he's been a revelation in center field while filling in for Rafaela and puts immense pressure on opposing pitchers with his elite sprint speed.

With both of their center fielders now down, however, the Red Sox are going to have to stitch together a plan until Rafaela or White returns. Nate Eaton and Jarren Duran have taken the job since White initially got hurt, but neither is quite as good with the glove as we've become accustomed to.

This depth crunch going to put ample pressure on others; for instance, Roman Anthony has been oscillating between outfield and DH starts since returning from the IL at the end of August. With Duran likely getting the majority of the starts in center from here on out, Anthony might have to play the field more than was otherwise planned.

Hopefully White can return quickly, but his momentum could be halted by this hiatus. It's a rotten bit of luck for a team suddenly succumbing to a ton of injuries at once, but there isn't enough time for the Red Sox to feel sorry for themselves. It's next-man-up until the reinforcements get healthy.

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