Red Sox’s Alex Cora Addresses Injuries To Boston’s Bullpen, Infield
BOSTON — The Red Sox have been nailed by the injury bug all across the diamond throughout the first half of the season, subjecting the team to quickly adapt in order to keep themselves on track.
Most recently, Boston was cornered to make a plethora of bullpen moves, placing left-hander Joely Rodríguez on the 15-day injured list and optioning Ryan Sherriff to Triple-A Worcester while recalling Kaleb Ort and Brennan Bernardino as corresponding roster recalls.
Doing so before the second-to-last contest with the Tampa Bay Rays to wrap up Boston’s seven-game home stand, Red Sox manager Alex Cora briefly addressed several roster injuries, beyond those hampering the team’s bullpen depth.
“The Joely situation hopefully (is) something similar to Chris (Sale) early on. That there’s nothing more than 15 days,” Cora explained. “Just talking to him, he felt well throughout the day and then when he got on the mound to get ready or when he started to get ready, he felt good. So, it is what it is. It’s the grind of the weekend and we just gotta be ready for today.”
One of Boston’s other bullpen arms, right-hander John Schrieber, suffered a right teres major strain after delivering 14 consecutive scoreless appearances for the Red Sox, but it’s possible that he could take his latest stride toward a return as soon as Monday.
“(He’s) just getting better,” Cora shared. “There’s a good chance that he starts playing catch tomorrow. So we’ll see how he is with that.”
But again, the bullpen isn’t the only area that forced the Red Sox to adapt quickly on their feet thus far.
With Enmanuel Valdez continuing to show promise at the plate, making an earlier-than-expected jump to the big leagues, Cora chimed in about Boston’s initial go-to second baseman coming into the season: Christian Arroyo, who’s played just 27 games with the Red Sox this season and landed on the 10-day injured list with right hamstring tightness back on May 7.
“We haven’t talked to him today,” Cora revealed. “… We’ll sit down with him and see where we at and what we’re gonna do.”
Another infielder, Yu Chang, who like Valdez slid into Cora’s infielder crew, hit the injured list with a left hamate fracture and has since been on a rehab assignment with the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs. Similar to Arroyo’s situation, there remains a waiting game in regard to Chang’s status for now.
“We’re waiting on him to see how he feels,” Cora said. “He hit off the Trajekt yesterday. See how he reacts today. Obviously, with him tomorrow we’re gonna be here tomorrow too. So the hope is for him to go on Tuesday, but obviously to see how he feels.”
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