Huge Red Sox injury update
Posted on June 28, 2010
Filed Under 2010 Season, Injury Watch | 3 Comments
Somehow the Red Sox have the 4th best record in all of baseball. This is without a healthy starting rotation and an Opening Day outfield that hasn’t even played 10 full games together. The injury situation only got worse over the weekend as three more players went down in the series against the Giants. It’s time to take a step back and look at Boston’s ouchies:
Player: Josh Beckett
Injury: Lower-back strain. Josh hurt his back swinging in preparation for interleague play and then made things worse a short while later when he slipped on a wet mound at Yankee Stadium. He was placed on the 15-day DL on May 19th.
Prognosis: He is slowly working his way back (he threw 75 pitches in a bullpen session on June 26th) but team sources don’t expect him to join the big league club until late July. The return will be after he has pitched 3 or 4 minor league rehab starts for Pawtucket. To be quite honest, Beckett was pitching pretty poorly before he hurt himself so hopefully he can make the most of those rehab starts and try to get back to form.
Replacement: Tim Wakefield had been delegated to the bullpen before Beckett got hurt but was slipped back into the starting rotation. Of his 7 starts since then, only 1 of them was under 6 innings.
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Player:: Jacoby Ellsbury
Injury:: Fractured ribs. Ellsbury originally fractured a rib colliding with Adrien Beltre in the early days of the season. Once he returned from the disabled list, he tried playing with the discomfort of his not fully healed injury but had to pack it in and go back on the 15-day DL.
Prognosis:: Ellsbury made his second trip to the 15-day DL on May 28th. He is eligible to come off it but it was announced on June 10th that his conditioned had worsened so there is no set timetable for his return.
Replacement:: Darnell McDonald and Daniel Nava are currently rotating positions in the outfield in hopes that Ellsbury can return and Mike Cameron can finally go back to full-time duty.
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Player: Jeremy Hermida
Injury: Fractured ribs. Tell me if this sounds familiar.. Jeremy Hermida was going for a flyball in LF and collided with Adrian Beltre. Hermida ended up with fractured ribs and was officially put on the 15-day DL on June 10th.
Prognosis: He’s started swinging a bat again and hasn’t admitted to any pain but if his fractured ribs are anything like the ones suffered by Jacoby then I wouldn’t hold my breath (pun!) for a quick return to the lineup.
Replacement: Ironically, Hermida was Jacoby Ellsbury’s replacement in LF. Now Darnell McDonald and Daniel Nava are covering for him as well.
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Player: Mike Lowell
Injury: Strained right hip. Lowell has been dealing with this hip problem for the better part of the last 3 years. There is nothing new to say about it other than the pain has finally gotten to the point where he had to be placed on the DL on June 23rd.
Prognosis: To be honest.. I’m not sure. He wasn’t playing much before he was placed on the disabled list and he probably won’t play much when he returns. The team is going to just see how he feels but this hip setback probably just killed any trade value that he previously had.
Replacement: Again, he rarely played as it was. Bill Hall and Kevin Youkilis are both listed as back-ups at 3rd when Adrian Beltre needs some time off.
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Player: Dustin Pedroia
Injury: Broken left foot. This is arguably the biggest injury on the team. Last weekend Pedroia fouled a ball off his foot hard enough to break something. He was placed on the DL on June 26th.
Prognosis: The team thinks that Pedroia will miss about six weeks of playing time. That means a return around early August as long as everything heals correctly.
Replacement: Bill Hall is suited to take Pedroia’s place in the infield (yikes) but the Sox aren’t happy enough with that so they have traded for utility infielder Eric Patterson as well as calling up Angel Sanchez from the minors.
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Those are only the people on the disabled list at the moment. The problems don’t stop there:
Clay Buchholz suffered a minor hamstring tear while running the bases the other day; however, it doesn’t look like he’ll have to miss a start because of the Sox’ off-days. They could theoretically go 9 days without using him as a starter.
Victor Martinez broke his thumb yesterday and the club still isn’t sure if he will have to go on the DL or not. It will be a pretty big problem if he does. Jason Varitek will takeover as the every day catcher but both suitable replacements in Pawtucket (Mark Wagner and Dusty Brown) are on the disabled list as well.
Don’t leap off the ledge yet Sox fans, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. Jed Lowrie (remember him?!) is finally a week or so away from beginning a rehab assignment. I don’t see any reason why he can’t take over at 2B while Pedroia is out. I refuse to give up on Lowrie so early in his career.
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Does anybody know the whereabouts of Bill Buckner???
He lives in Idaho now. He threw out the first pitch before a Sox game in 2008 too.
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