Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke and pitching coach Dave Bush held a conference call with reporters Tuesday, providing updates on a trio of injured Sox players (all Twitter links via NESN’s Guerin Austin and MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo).
Perhaps most notably, Roenicke explained that right fielder Alex Verdugo has been swinging a bat, throwing and running as he rehabs a stress fracture in his lower back. Moving his workouts away from the Red Sox’ spring facility following its shutdown has made it more difficult for the club to closely monitor the 23-year-old’s progress, and Verdugo hasn’t yet been able to undergo an MRI to ascertain that his injury has completely healed. However, the Sox remain hopeful that if play is able to resume this year, Verdugo would be ready to participate fully. The centerpiece in Boston’s return for Mookie Betts and David Price, Verdugo slashed .294/.342/.475 with a dozen homers, 22 doubles and a pair of triples in 377 plate appearances with the Dodgers last year.
[Related: What happens to the Mookie Betts trade if the season is canceled?]
As for right-hander Collin McHugh, he’s moving more slowly through the early stages of a strengthening program. McHugh underwent a nonsurgical elbow procedure over the winter after finishing the 2019 season on the injured list and has been brought along slowly. The Sox aren’t rushing him through anything with the season in limbo at the moment, and Roenicke indicated that the 32-year-old righty, who signed a one-year deal with Boston in early March, still has quite a ways to go in his rehab. Boston’s final couple of rotation spots remain fairly unsettled — Ryan Weber is the likely fourth starter, and there’s no set fifth starter — although given where McHugh is in his rehab, perhaps he’s better viewed as a potential bullpen piece.
Regarding former franchise cornerstone Dustin Pedroia, it doesn’t seem that the shutdown has provided any new optimism that he could make a return. While he’s still under contract through the 2021 season, Pedroia’s 2020 status has been up in the air since he suffered a “significant” setback in his recovery from repeated left knee troubles that have necessitated a trio of surgeries. He’s played in just nine games over the past two seasons thanks to his increasingly problematic knee, and Roenicke was rather blunt in casting doubt on a potential return for the 36-year-old: “He’s still not a point where he’s thinking about trying to be ready to come back and join us.”
Red Sox were poised to have another wholly mediocre year, hopefully we get to see that abject failure take the field this year soon.
May 15th anyone? Open up with no ST, just 40 man rosters and laxed rules on call-up/down.
May 15 seems… optimistic
“Optimistic” seems optimistic here…
Not really. It’s doable. But ST is going to be required.
July would be more realistic.
Play into December, the have all of the playoffs in Arizona, like they were considering to start the season. Ending it there seems to make more sense, due to climate factors. Would be interesting to see a playoffs with no home-field advantage.
Your grasp of the English language is an abject failure.
When are they going to give all details of the alleged cheating?
When they finish reviewing the footage from the yes network camera in CF
That could take years….
Based on pure speculation to deflect from the real investigation…
….MLB is hoping you forgot about the ALLEGED cheating….
When someone goes to trial if they are found not guilty then a crime was not committed in the eyes of the court and justice system. Innocent until proven guilty – not guilty until proven innocent- or guilty even if proven innocent.
If the Red Sox are guilty why didn’t MLB just get it over with……
Everyone knows the Red Sox used electronic devices to relay sign information. That fact is not in dispute. The question is who knew, was it a team wide scheme and was it “technically” against the rules. It’s more like a court case where everyone knows that the defendant is guilty, but his lawyer is able to get him a great deal because while the evidence shows that a crime was committed, it doesn’t show exactly who did what.
I think you have this one confused with the Apple Watches. They were accused of looking at signs on their video monitors, then relaying them on the field(not with devices).
I get sick of all Red Sox diehards who wanted to keep Mookie and Price for another one year try. They had to reset the salary cap and restock their farm system. The Astros, Twins, and Yankees were in a much stronger position. Dombrowski won a World Series at a steep price, but he did win it. 2021 season is the second part of the rebuild. More options but still strong weaknesses.
Which is ok as long as there are games in 2020 and the tax does reset.
Verdugo is training on his own, but, hasn’t even had an mri to determine if the stress fracture healed. That seems like a bad idea.
Truth is, of the 3 pieces that came back verdugo is like buying a lottery ticket knowing 2 numbers of 6. Plenty of chance of being a bust, but, better odds to win than many.
Downs could be an every day league average guy, too early to tell.
Then there’s one lottery ticket at catcher. Not as highly regarded as swihart and look how that turned out. I could also say lavarnway. Point is, you don’t know.
Hindsight is 20/20, but, I bet many wish price was more highly valued (and ultimately not traded) like I argued he should’ve been. Now the rotation is in shambles because they were short on impact pitching, traded their best player and a decent pitcher for… no pitching.
So plenty of questionable things are still going on, even now after the trade
You could make the exact same argument about any trade. There is no guarantee on any of them, if you look back through history I’d have to wonder how many trades worked out exactly the way teams wanted them to. My guess would be less than 50%.
Even with the luxury tax not resetting the Red Sox made the right move. In many ways this trade reminds me of the 2012 trade between the Red Sox and the Dodgers. The end result of that trade was despite not one of the players the Red Sox received became a major piece, they won the 2013 World Series as a direct result. The difference here is the stakes were raised with Boston giving up more talent with Mookie and receiving more potential talent in Verdugo and Downs. But ultimately it gives them breathing room for the future. Add on Bloom and his reputation for doing a lot with a little and Boston could be solid team far faster than had they kept Price and struggled to re-sign Mookie.
Are the Red Sox worse off today without Mookie and Price? Definitely. But running a baseball franchise isn’t about year to year. It’s about thinking down the road which is what makes the Mookie trade the right move.
I feel sorry for the Dodgers which gave up three decent prospects and paid $43 million to get one year of Betts plus David Price. (If they can resign Betts good for them. That will not be part of The Trade). The Dodgers were in my opinion the best most well balanced team entering 2020.
How many home runs Has Betts hit so far and how many games will he play as part of the trade for just one year.
A year or a few months of Betts plus Price (4 years in Boston – 2 hurt and 2 so/so, one nice post season) for Verdugo, Downs, and Wong is good compensation.
Betts was a good player and Henry can afford it and should have signed him
No one would pay him 12 yr $420 million. That is like asking for 20 yr $1 billion…..he would not sign!!! He wanted to go to free agency and no one will offer him that much especially after a year of lost revenue. He gambled he would have another great year and get paid top dollar in free agency. It will be interesting to see what he ends up getting….
AL34 I agree 100 percent with your politics…. and pro military also!
I’m a Red Sox fan diehard but have no problem with a reboot
As they used to say: hear hear.
Right? Any Red Sox fan who has been around for more than 10 years isn’t going to get thrown by having a few mediocre years after winning a WS title. It’s all gravy.
“It’s all gravy,” nice King reference from Platoon. Also, agreed on reboot – I think it’s already underway.
I hate to say it, but I think it’s time for Dustin Pedroia to hang’em up and become a bench coach.
I would love to see him as a candidate for bench coach, but would also love to see Mike Lowell Or Jason Varitek get a shot also
Lowell is a great idea. I don’t see Pedroia as a manager or coach, being a dogged competitor does not automatically translate to dugout success. Pedroia lacks a certain cerebral approach of a guy like Mike Lowell. Howie Kendrick always struck me the same way, he’d be a solid coach/manager.
Varitek would be a good one too.
We need an update on Buzz and Camera, there two best players.
I know its just due diligence at this point to report on Pede, but we all know hes done. He’s doing what he has to do to collect the money hes owed (and earned) without coming out and saying it. Thanks for the great years, time to look onward.
Pedroia retire already and stop embarrassing yourself and the team with this BS attempt at coming back. Henry needs to give him an injury settlement, maybe a job in the organization, and his day at Fenway. This has gone on long enough. I liked him as a player but he is not coming back
He’s coming back as manager in 2021 after a knee replacement.
Pedroia played 3 games in 2018 and 6 games in 2019 ….. very poorly. The Collective Bargaining rules need to be changed so that a player can still get paid the rest on their contract while retiring. Pedroia has/will get paid 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 using up a 40 man roster spot in the off season and a 60 day IL spot during the season.