Garrett Crochet. Roman Anthony. Curtis Mead.
Adley Rutschman?
The first trio represents players who were initially deemed to have minor ailments this season, only to end up requiring lengthy IL stints due to major injuries.
Now Rutschman, whom the Red Sox traded several of their top prospects to acquire at the trade deadline, could be the latest name on that list of downplayed injuries.
“Adley is, he’s dealing with some stuff with that elbow,” interim manager Chad Tracy said on WEEI on Tuesday. “We’re not completely out of the woods. We are still monitoring and trying to give him appropriate time to make sure that thing’s OK. It’s probably something we’re going to deal with off and on through the year. They’re looking at different avenues to help alleviate that, so we have to be mindful of that.”
Rutschman — who as on the IL with a wrist injury when the Red Sox acquired him — was given a day off last week in Miami after hyperextending his elbow on a swing the day before.
“Nothing to be alarmed about,” Tracy said at the time. “Just felt like I don’t want to make that worse.”
Rutschman did play in three of Boston’s four games over the weekend in New York but was not in Boston’s lineup on Monday night against Seattle. Tracy indicated the team will likely need to give Rutschman more days off through the final month of the season.
“He’s active, but like, keeping him healthy and doing what we need to do make sure we keep him healthy is important,” Tracy said on WEEI. “So yeah, there will be days when he’s not in there. Probably won’t be [Tuesday]. But we have to keep in mind like how do we do this properly to make sure that he stays active and healthy?”
Indeed, Rutschman wasn’t in Boston’s lineup for Tuesday night’s game against Seattle, with Connor Wong slated for a second consecutive start behind the plate.
Overall, Rutschman has not delivered the type of performance the Red Sox hoped they’d be getting when they traded away Anthony Eyanson, Kyson Witherspoon, Enddy Azocar and Harold Rivas to the Orioles. The 28-year-old is hitting just .170 in 15 games for Boston, with two extra-base hits (one double, one home run) for a .500 OPS. He’s struck out 15 times with just six walks in his 59 plate appearances.
Tracy first utilized Rutschman as a No. 3 hitter before starting him as the cleanup hitter for one game. Rutschman then slid to the No. 5 spot in the order, though he did bat sixth for the first time in Saturday’s matinee win in Yankee Stadium.
Obviously, the production has not matched expectations, and now the near future figures to be muddied a bit by an injury that doesn’t sound like it’s going to go away before the season ends.
Tyron Guerrero to IL
In other unfortunate injury news for the Red Sox, reliever Tyron Guerrero was placed on the 15-day IL with shuolder inflammation.
Guerrero pitched in Monday night’s game, a rare outing where he allowed multiple runs. Entering the game with a 5-3 lead, he gave up three earned runs on three hits and a walk in his one-third of an inning and left with the Red Sox down by two.
Guerrero entered the night with a 2.58 ERA and 1.043 WHIP on the season prior to Monday’s outing.
The team recalled Wyatt Olds — who made his MLB debut with Boston in mid-August and has yet to give up an earned run in six outings — to replace Guerrero in the bullpen.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa recalled
The days of rosters expanding to 40 players in September are over, with teams now only able to increase their roster size from 26 to 28. For the Red Sox, one of those spots on Tuesday was used for Jedixson Paez, who’s slated to start Tuesday in place of Sonny Gray.
The other was used to activate utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa from the 60-day IL. The 31-year-old played nine games for Triple-A Worcester, batting .241 with a .647 OPS. Prior to suffering his forearm injury, he was hitting .277 with a .705 in 47 games for Boston.
