Red Sox lefty Eduardo Rodriguez has undergone a significant knee surgery, per a team announcement. Specifically, he had a patellofemoral ligament reconstruction performed on his right knee. The joint has been a source of problems for Rodriguez for some time, though he was able to turn in a mostly complete 2017 season.
Per the announcement, it is expected that Rodriguez will not be able to resume pitching for around six months. That would put him on course to be ready by mid-April of next year, though of course he’ll need some time to build up into full game condition. Accordingly, it seems clear he won’t be available for the club for some time early in the 2018 campaign.
That will leave Boston looking for options to fill out the rotation at the start of the year, though perhaps the club will feel confident enough in Rodriguez’s return that it will be happy with a shorter-term fill-in. The Sox are also hoping that Steven Wright will be back at full strength, potentially providing another option to join a rotation that’ll feature Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello, and Drew Pomeranz. But there’s now rather clearly some cause for the team to pursue added depth — if not even to go ahead and add a full-time starter if a reasonable opportunity arises.
Rodriguez, 24, has steadily provided Boston with good innings over the past three seasons — when he has been available. While he has yet to take more than 24 starts in a given campaign, and hasn’t yet taken a final step to producing dominant results, Rodriguez is quite a valuable asset and still seems capable of more.
In 2017, Rodriguez threw a personal high of 137 1/3 innings, working to a solid 4.19 ERA. While he recorded 9.8 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9, he also surrendered 1.25 home runs per nine. ERA estimators all landed in range of his actual results, but perhaps there’s still another gear for a pitcher who has steadily increased his swinging-strike rate (most recently, 11.6%) and managed to produce despite a series of lower-body issues. Surprisingly, he has maintained rather pronounced reverse platoon splits in the majors; beyond getting healthy, then, perhaps the biggest challenge Rodriguez faces is to find a way to tamp down on the .270/.338/.447 batting line that southpaw swingers have put up against him.
Well baring the Red Sox investing in a starting pitcher for OD 2018 it looks like their starting 5 at least as of today will be: Sale, Price, Pomeranz, Porcello and Steven Wright. With the exception of Sale there are question marks with each of the other 4.
i mean, with the prospects and money invested there, you just have to play the hand they dealt themselves.
What, exactly, is the question mark with Pomeranz?
A lot still question his arm health, especially after this year’s workload. If he has no problems next year with his arm, I think skeptics will finally move on. Personally, I think he’s fine. I question Porcello and whether 2016 was just a flash in the pan more than I do Poms health.
“President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said less than a week ago that he was not aware of any players who’d need surgery. (Of course, it was later announced that lefty Robby Scott underwent a procedure that very day.)”
Followed by Hanley Ramirez and Eduardo Rodriguez. So, is Dombrowski a liar, or did everyone just take a physical in the last week?
To quote a favorite line of Roger Clemens, “I think you misheard him”.
It was “I think Andy misremembered “
So when DD said he didn’t know anyone was going to have surgery… he probably meant he did know everyone was going to have surgery. 3 guys have undergone surgery since he made that statement like a week ago
Rodriquez’s knee has been up in the air for over a year with his knee that goes in and out of joint and Ramirez? Nobody was sure if he was going to get his shoulder cut on either. Add Pedroia and his knee to that list, which don’t think has happened and will force him to miss a large chunk of next year if he gets cut on. That issue not resolved yet and Nobody knows for sure if Stephen Wright’s shoulder will require surgery.
Just because Dombrowski didn’t know for certain these guys would get cut on didn’t mean they might be. Those 4 and others have issues which might require surgery to repair. it’s not settled yet.
If DD said he did know players who were going under the knife it would pressure those who might be on the fence at that moment. After all, its the players choice (and, perhaps their agent) to have surgery which, in effect, might damage or destroy that player’s career if the procedure is unsuccessful. Pleading ignorance protects the organization from legal actions initiated against the club later on by a damaged player whomever that player might be
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Is Mike Hazen still the Red Sox GM I can’t recall ever hearing anything from him when it comes to Red Sox announcements. Has he lost the ability to speak.
Hazen still speaks – for the Diamondbacks.
Not news to most of us, but does it bear asking whether Dombrowski is aware that Hagen has left the Boston FO?
This just in:
Dombrowski has surgery to remove loose bodies, aka “Little White Lies” floating around in noggin.
What about the potential knee surgery for Pedroia, I read he will miss most of 2018 if he elects the surgery, I say go for it and sign Nunez
It is rather misleading to present Rodriguez’s raw stats from the past couple of seasons and then announce that it is hoped he might have another gear. He DOES have a clear extra gear: good health. Rodriguez has had very good or better results these past two years, but his season lines were ruined by short segments when his health was clearly a problem. No, we can’t just pretend the bad injury stretches didn’t happen, but the quality of his pitching when healthy clearly demonstrates how good he would be if he managed to avoid injuries.
Imagine that dumbo says nobody needed surgery- Hanley, Scott and Rodriguez all within a week sounds as if he is not quit in touch with the ball club
Next year for Rodriguez it will be a waste he’ll get up to speed Junish then experience a setback a little swelling tenderness discomfort out for another month then start back up to quit never get up to full speed….. year over