Mets right-hander Marcus Stroman is making progress in his recovery from the left calf tear he suffered last week. Stroman has returned to throwing “full tilt” bullpen sessions, manager Luis Rojas said (via Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News). Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner added that Stroman is still unable to sprint, so it remains unclear when he’ll be in line for his season debut. The sooner the better for the Mets, for whom Stroman is a must-have complement to ace Jacob deGrom. From his own standpoint, Stroman’s in for a rather important season with his first trip to free agency scheduled for the winter.
- One of Stroman’s Mets teammates, fellow righty Jared Hughes, has been on the injured list since July 15. The team didn’t announce a reason for the move at the time, though it turns out he tested positive for the coronavirus, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. Hughes was symptomatic for roughly 10 days, per Rosenthal, but he’s now healthy and pitching at the team’s alternate training site. Prior to his bout with the virus, Hughes appeared as if he’d earn a season-opening roster spot after the Mets signed him to a major league contract.
- The Rays have gotten good news on a couple of their outfielders who, because of their own positive COVID tests, have missed the season so far. Star Austin Meadows engaged in baseball activities on Wednesday, Juan Toribio of MLB.com relays (Twitter links). Manager Kevin Cash indicated Meadows could return sometime during the Rays’ Aug. 4-9 homestand. Meanwhile, Randy Arozarena was cleared to rejoin the team and resume baseball activities, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He started a rehab assignment at the Rays’ alternate training site Wednesday.
- The Red Sox, having gotten poor production from their patchwork rotation thus far, will give righty Zack Godley an opportunity as a starter, Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald tweets. Godley, whom the Red Sox signed to a minor league contract this month, will make his first start with the club on Saturday against the Yankees. The former Diamondback and Blue Jay was an effective starter just a couple years ago before falling off dramatically last season. Godley had an extremely encouraging long-relief appearance Monday, though, as he tossed four scoreless, four-hit innings with seven strikeouts against no walks in a loss to the Mets.
The RS are what they are, hoping for a high draft pick. I just hope if they trade anymore pitching none of the games will be worth watching. I enjoy watching Nate pitch, do I do hope they leave the fans at least one pitcher worth seeing.
Nathan eovaldi is going nowhere. With his injury history and that contract we’re stuck with him.
Eovaldi looked good in both his starts this year. But yes it was a bad contract to start with.
There is a such things as salary dumps
Krillin89, there’s no way that Red Sox are attaching young players or draft picks to get rid of Nathan eovaldi’s contract. The Red Sox are trying to BUILD young guys and draft picks LOL. They’re not dumping that salary. That’s why I say they’re stuck with him. Perhaps in his contract year they’ll find a taker at the deadline but not before.
Someone would take Eovaldi for half his contract.
Eovaldi earned that contract for what he did in the WS in extra innings. Boston probably should of let him go elsewhere after using and abusing him in WS.
@mlbnyyfan- used & abused makes me laugh. Remember what Joe Maddon did to Aroldis Chapman in the World Series 3 years ago? Nothing was worse then that. I thought Chappy was done for sure. Luckily he has bounced back. Hopefully he’ll be back soon healthy COVID-19 free.
Makes me laugh too. Just upset that he did nothing for the Yankees and he helped Boston win with the help of cheating Cora
Really? Eovaldi had one win in 12 starts for the Red Sox in 2019.
Brad, that’s exactly what it would take. But the socks aren’t doing that anytime soon so that’s why they’re stuck with him they’ll just ride it out.
Nate did earn his contract n I enjoy watching him pitch. It’s the only bright light in this bad yr.
Except Manfred’s report about the 2018 Red Sox and Cora failed to document a single instance of actual cheating.
mlbnyyfan- lol. Just look at it this way if Boston keeps cheating as usual. Their STILL not winning the World Series with their taxi squad pitching staff this season. Eovaldi isn’t a starter anymore. He should be a closer somewhere
Yank4life – there is nowhere near enough starting pitching in the mlb, so even though Eovaldi might made a better closer most teams are short of starters and will use him that way.
Yeah I was finally going to buy the package to watch their games this year, since only get televised, and no internet to stream. And i can’t pain myself to watch them get obliterated and throw spring training esc pitching games.
If you told me back in April that the Red Sox would be 2 games back and 2 games under .500 on July 30, I would’ve taken it.
Boston could easily be in a great position if they demanded more for Betts. Verdugo is good but they should of gotten Lux,May etc. Dodgers got off easy. Having Lux at second base would of really been a great improvement.
The Dodgers were never trading those two
Redeye, exactly !! I don’t know what some are thinking. You could hear them back in the winter of all these great packages they were going to get for Mookie. They forgot it was a contract year and he was going to test free agency. We did pretty darn well in what we got.
I think the Red Sox did the best they could do, given the circumstances. Betts never made it a secret that he wanted to test Free Agency, then he goes and signs a 12 year extension with LA. What it sounds like to me is that he just wanted out of Boston. So at least they got a decent return.
I guess that’s true not many teams could trade for Betts and make sure you keep him long term. I know several Mets fans disappointed he didn’t come to NY. I wonder if a package of Thor,McNeil,Conforto, etc gets it done. As a Yankees fan I’m glad he’s not in Boston just thought they could of tried to get more.
He didn’t necessarily want out of Boston. He wanted the richest contract in baseball history. Dodgers gave it to him so that’s where he signed.
@Gary–Except that when the Sox wanted to talk extension, Betts didn’t want any part of it. He never gave them a chance. Yet he goes to LA and signs an extension. What happened to wanting to test the market? So he’s willing to talk extension with the Dodgers but not the Red Sox? I don’t buy that. That’s why I believe he really wanted out of Boston.
You’re probably right. But didn’t the Red Sox only offer him 200, then 300 million? Now he’s getting 365 added for a total of almost 400 million. That’s a lot of cheese.
Still.. you’re probably right.