Red Sox slugger Hanley Ramirez departed tonight’s contest with what the team is calling a “right trap muscle spasm,” Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald tweets. There’s no real reason to expect it’s a significant problem, though Boston will surely wish to make sure that Ramirez doesn’t rush back and end up shelved.
Here are a few more notes from the AL East:
- While the Red Sox have been walking a fine line at third base, the team may soon have a fuller set of options, as Mastrodonato also recently reported. Pablo Sandoval is nearing a minor-league assignment now that his knee is improving. And Brock Holt is moving even faster with his symptoms of vertigo finally clearing. It’s still not exactly clear how the playing time will sort out once those two are back, but presumably they’ll join Josh Rutledge in some kind of platoon situation at the hot corner, with both Rutledge and (especially) Holt also representing options elsewhere around the diamond.
- Rays catcher Wilson Ramos is making strides in his rehab from ACL surgery, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Ramos says he is “very excited” about how his surgically repaired knee is progressing, with hopes that he can begin a rehab stint before the end of May. Ramos is not only running and hitting but will soon be allowed to ramp up his work with the mask on. Tampa Bay will no doubt look forward to seeing whether Ramos can follow up on his big 2016 season, as current regular Derek Norris has struggled to a .202/.263/.303 batting line to open the year.
- The Rays will soon get a look at another important offseason acquisition, too. As Topkin tweets, righty Jose De Leon is preparing for his first start of the year at the High-A level. He’ll presumably move up to Triple-A as his rehab from flexor mass issues continues to progress. While De Leon did reach the majors last year, the timing of his return to the bigs is currently unclear. In addition to completing his development and ensuring his health, the Rays will also be looking for the best way to boost De Leon’s workload. He still has yet to throw more than 114 1/3 innings in a given season.
Three options the Red Sox will soon have for 3B: Sandoval, Holt & Rutledge. At this stage none of them worth a whole lot. Each option worse than the other IMO.
Rutledge is underrated. Best option on the team, plays hard and is consistently average, which is better than anything else they have
Consistently average, sorry but that doesn’t pass the eye test.
While consistently average is not what the Sox want, Rutledge is still a better option than Sandoval. At least Rutledge comes to play hard everyday. Given time he should do better.
You left out Hernandez, who despite the errors hasn’t played a terrible 3b and has hit better than the 3 and still had decent range. He’s playing 3b for pretty much 1st time and really not doing a bad job of it
Seriously if he’s the teams best option the Red Sox are in more serious trouble than you can imagine.
What are they to do? Give up top 20 BA prospect for some rental.. like Fraizer? That’s beyond absurd.. It’s nonsense like that which has made this board less and less go to over the last few years.
Boston is strong at 8 positions and Rafel Devers might be ready by the end of the year at 3rd to take over anyway. some combo of Hernandez/Rutledge and Holt, then finally beridding themselves by DFA’ing the hapless sandoval will be fine until then.
Finding an interm solution until price gets back up to speed and hoping he’s healthy is the problem, not the 1 minor issue at 3b.
On my excitement meter, those three don’t register. Neither one of them are top 20 3rd baseman in the majors. They might not be top 29
Take Johnny peralta from the cardinals please
Oh gee, Norris is struggling. Who would have guessed?
Norris is probably at the Ryan hanigan stage of his career, sadly. A backup catcher who will bounce around for a while.
Holt needs to continue to be Utility. Moving him around keeps him sharp and on his toes. Flip a coin on Panda/Rutledge. I thought Rutledge could quickly steal 3B like Shaw did with Panda hitting the DL again..but he had a slew of errors right out the gate. I have no preference to either right now. All 3 deserve a chance though.
Sox will need third base help from someone not presently on their roster. Sox are playing some uninspired baseball. So tired of John Farrell.
I was trying to think of a nice word, uninspired, that’s the one
Maybe he should bring beers and chicken into dugout for the guys
They are just styling…after all they were “projected” to run away with AL East and win the WS.
Any takers Ramirez lands on the new but often overlooked 10 Day DL… Hate it bring back the 15 day DL
Agreed.
Thanks Vinscully16 but apparently most disagree. 4 dislikes? Most I ever got on this site, Talk about Hit & Run mlbtr posting.. What happened to engaging in a meaningful intelligent debate? Here’s my argument. Try to refute it rather than thumbs down
because I really am interested in hearing your argument for the 10 Day DL because I detest it. Help me feel better about it. It’s becoming way too common and overused.
Nowadays it doesn’t seem like ANY team is 100% healthy because they’re resting players on the new 10 day DL for ineffectiveness rather then legitimate injuries. 15 day DL makes you think harder about committing to the injury list.
2 weeks and 1 day is a lot longer commitment to make than 1 week and 3 days for any aching player you’re considering resting
I end my argument with “Phantom injuries” + “Sam Dyson” And I swear I really don’t mean to pick on the Rangers, they won’t be the first or last team to utilize this loophole and Sam Dyson is **** this year (I don’t think anyone knows why but Rangers fans, Dyson was a good relief pitcher
He will extend a few times as he was tired of playing so much and watching Pablo have vacation time.
No Papi in clubhouse=no law and order
More drama to follow
I like the new 7-10 day DL. Allows your team to stay full strength while someone is dealing with minor injuries. I don’t see clubhouse drama with this team at all..so I don’t know why it keeps getting brought up on here. This isn’t Chicken and Beer season. That’s some drama. Remember when Ortiz destroyed a bullpen phone and was restrained by Pedroia?..I love the guy but that’s not a good example of Law or Order. The Law