The Red Sox’ already thin starting rotation became even more uncertain on Tuesday, and now they might be without their ace for a while.
The team’s worst fears surrounding Eduardo Rodriguez, who did not report to the start of summer camp as he waited for his COVID-19 results, became true on Tuesday as Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke announced Rodriguez tested positive for the virus.
Roenicke also revealed that top prospect Bobby Dalbec tested positive, bringing the Red Sox’ total of COVID-19 positives to four. Rodriguez and Dalbec joined left-handed relievers Josh Taylor and Darwinzon Hernandez, who tested positive at the beginning of camp.
Roenicke said Rodriguez, who was expected to be the Red Sox’ Opening Day starter, is “feeling a lot better” but still not 100% as they await two negative test results that are needed before he can rejoin the team. But even with the July 24 opener against the Orioles less than three weeks away, Rodriguez is still hopeful he can take the mound.
“He wants to be ready for that Opening Day but we’ll have to see how it goes,” Roenicke said. “The medical team will follow him, will give him instructions basically on how to stay in shape. It just depends on how long this thing goes, when we can get the negative test from him and when he can come up and join us.”
If Rodriguez can get the negative tests required to return before Opening Day, it sounds like a real possibility the lefty may not miss time, as unlikely as that seems. Before testing positive, Roenicke said Rodriguez was built up to about four innings, and he’ll work with the medical staff and pitching coach Dave Bush to determine his appropriate level of activity before he pitches in games again.
But at this point, it seems far more likely that Rodriguez will miss time, and if that’s the case it’ll be quite the disappointment for the left-hander after his breakthrough 2019 season. The 27-year-old was ready to build on it this season, and even had Pedro Martinez, a mentor and Red Sox special assistant, thinking about his chances of winning a Cy Young.
“It’s always difficult,” Roenicke said. “The medical end of it, certainly comes first. It’s just like an injury, that comes first and make sure that guys are healthy and they feel good enough to get back on the field. Eddie, coming off the year he had last year and I know how hard he worked before he came to the first spring training. I know how hard he was working before he got COVID, so that’s the difficult part is when you see a guy that’s on a mission to not only repeat but try to get better than what he did last year, it becomes difficult.
“You feel for the guy because I know the expectations he had this year coming into it. I know things have changed because of the shortened season, but I know he was still looking forward to really leading this team on the mound and having that kind of year again.”
So, what now for the Red Sox?
Their starting rotation obviously now even has more question marks. Nathan Eovaldi likely projects as the Opening Day starter, with Martin Perez slotting in behind him. Then, Ryan Weber, mostly an unknown but a Roenicke favorite, could be the No. 3 starter. The No. 4 and 5 spots are open and will likely be filled with at least one opener.
Without Rodriguez, even more responsibility will fall on Eovaldi and Perez. Eovaldi, who missed most of last season with elbow issues, has looked impressive in camp and Perez, who joined the Red Sox this offseason, is coming off a season in which he made 29 starts. The Red Sox will need both to stay healthy, desperately.
“I think I’m ready,” Perez said. “We don’t have too much time to build your arm in the way that you want it. We had a lot of time off and they told us you have to be at a point where you can go and compete with the hitters in the game.
“We’re going to need Eduardo. … I have the same focus, I have the mentality that I had before. We just have to do the job as a team and we have to stay together. He’s going to come back and if we stay together, we’re going to do special things in this short season and we have a really good chance to do something special this year.”
The Red Sox will need tons of help from their bullpen to eat innings, and the absences of Taylor and Hernandez don’t help that. Roenicke said they’ll continue to stretch out their multi-inning guys, who become even more important especially once the season starts. The Red Sox play 10 consecutive games to start the year without an off day before a stretch of 17 in a row, so Roenicke will need as many options out of the bullpen as possible.
Roenicke said he doesn’t want to use more than one opener, but his options are slim. With less than three weeks until this weird season begins, nothing about it was ideal to start with, and it certainly just got even tougher.
“I think we have enough candidates in camp that we can find that fourth guy and maybe just one opener,” Roenicke said. “Or maybe we decide with our guys and what we have that it would be better to go with another starter in that fifth spot. Like I said, Eddie’s still on me about being ready for Opening Day, so we’ll see what happens there.”
"still" - Google News
July 08, 2020 at 02:05AM
https://ift.tt/2Z8ZKo0
Red Sox’ Eduardo Rodriguez tests positive for COVID-19, still hopeful for Opening Day - Boston Herald
"still" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35pEmfO
https://ift.tt/2YsogAP
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Red Sox’ Eduardo Rodriguez tests positive for COVID-19, still hopeful for Opening Day - Boston Herald"
Post a Comment