Red Sox left-hander Joely Rodríguez has a Grade 2 oblique strain, manager Alex Cora tells Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. Cora declined to provide a timetable for the southpaw, saying only that he would return “whenever he’s ready.” However, even mild oblique strains usually lead to absences of a few weeks, so Rodríguez seems slated to miss significant time.
Rodríguez, 31, was signed in the offseason to a one-year, $2MM deal with a club option for 2024. He spent last year with the Mets, posting a 4.47 ERA over 55 appearances. He walked 12% of batters faced but got strikeouts at a 26.4% rate and grounders at a 53.8% clip. It’s possible that he deserved better than that ERA indicates, as his .303 batting average on balls in play and his 63.3% strand rate were both on the unlucky side of average. His 3.23 FIP and 3.54 SIERA suggest he could be better if his luck were to even out.
Unfortunately, he will have to wait a while to test that luck with his new club, as he’s likely going to be out of action for a while. Though Cora wouldn’t provide any specifics on the estimated return timeline, there are some recent examples with more details. The Rays, for instance, gave an estimate of six-to-eight weeks when Tyler Glasnow recently suffered his own Grade 2 oblique strain. Every injury is different and it can’t simply be assumed that Rodriguez is looking at the same timeframe, but that can at least provide a rough guideline for what might be on the table here.
The Sox were set to have two lefties in their Opening Day bullpen, with Richard Bleier being the other. There are no other lefty relievers on the 40-man roster, but this news will perhaps open the door for someone else to make the club. Ryan Sherriff was signed to a minor league deal this offseason and could be an option. He was reassigned to minor league camp last week but this new info could perhaps increase his chances of making the club.
If the Sox are interested in external additions, the free agent market still features guys like Zack Britton and Ross Detwiler. It’s also possible that some new names will join them on the open market as Opening Day approaches and other clubs make their final roster decisions.
With our 40 man roster crunch he may need to go on the 60 dayIL to open up a spot. Sherriff is not on the 40.
Not really necessary to add Sherriff to 40-man yet (though he looks nice in ST). They have 9 other RPs on the roster. 3 of them lefties.
What three lefty relievers are you referring to? Paxton? The two kids Murphy and Walter?
Richard Bleier is your primary Lefty in the pen. Right?
Paxton is injured, hes not available.
And if you need need another lefty in pen Murphy or Walters. I know theyre starters, but it would be temporary.
Murphy and Walter were ruled out of consideration by Cora per Rob Bradford.
Jowly to 60-day makes a ton of sense for fitting both Alfaro and Tapia on 40-man. Sounds like he might be out that long anyway.
All I can say is if Yoshida is half as good in MLB as he’s been for Japan in the WBC, the Sox made a great decision by paying him all that money! Joely can rest up while watching Yoshida & Devers tear it up.
My feelings right now says, crowd favorite, Refsnyder doesnt make the cut. Ref has looked horrendous in ST — .083, 13k, so far. Meanwhile Tapia and Duvall look great.
That would open up a spot on the 40 man. But, it doesnt open up much room if they want Alfaro tand Tapia to get spots. Alfaro is a must to shore up catcher position.
I dont see them adding another Lefty, because the roster is pretty full. But who knows, maybe Im missing somebody.
Is it just me or has their been an excessive amount of oblique strains this spring training?
Looks like we had the same thought.
I had to chuckle at Cora’s response to when JR would return. “whenever he’s ready.”
I sense frustration & impatience from management on this oblique strain pandemic.
Better response than “I dont know”. It just happened 2 days ago and obliques have wide range of recovery times. If theres frustration, its probably at the question.
He’s a upper 4.xx era pitcher that was cast off from the Mets in his age 32 season, and, bloom grabbed him to join the geritol crew.
Not needed, signing that shouldn’t have been made from the start.
No loss.
GASox – No loss except another $2M down the drain.
At least we still have lefty reliever Josh Tay …. ah, nevermind.
Curly – I sense arrogance by that little Red Sox manager’s response.
Not surprising considering he’s the same manager that bragged to his team about stealing the 2017 WS.
I’m OK with Taylor having been the trade chip that he was.
They never should’ve wound up in the position where they needed to go after mondesi+lottery ticket and use him. That was the screw-up.
The only times Joely has been any good is in short samples where you avoid using him. If you make any attempt at normal use, or keep running him out in leverage spots over and over, you’re going to get BAD results.
Is what it is. Hope for the 500k buyout in 24, and, at least he’s going to miss active roster time and lose off the 2m in potential incentives for being active. Of course, he may be a negative clubhous presence if he gets ornery about not being activated
I think you just dont like the “little red sox manager”…thats fine..just say so
Pool – I have nothing against Cora, I just don’t want him managing the Red Sox.
Pool – I don’t like the little red sox cheating manager. Let me add I don’t like the little inept GM either!!
Maybe it’s just my memory failing me but I swear 10 or 15 years ago I’d never even heard of an oblique injury…
If I’m not mistaken, they used to call it side tightness or abdominal strain.
Is it just me or has there been a huge rise in oblique strains in the last year or two?
It’s almost as if the coaching effort that goes into throwing max effort rather than learning to pitch is coming home to roost across mlb huh?
GASox – Who would have imagined throwing max effort could lead to injuries, eh?
I guess that data isn’t used by the brilliant analytics people, eh?
Fever- those “brilliant” analytics people created this mess.
grnm – You are 100% correct.
Max effort throwing sounds logical except for position players are going down with it too. Didn’t Juan Soto just strain an oblique recently? I’ve never seen him do anything with max effort in the field
GASoxFan- the game would be so much better if pitchers were taught to pitch and hitters to hit. Instead it’s go for broke on both sides of the ball. And they think it’s the length of the game that’s killing the sport…
These pitchers know how to pitch as well as, or better than, the pitchers from the good old days. You don’t know which pitchers are throwing with max effort. Pitch speeds will continue to climb as time goes on, regardless of how many are throwing with maximum effort.
Hank – Radar guns didn’t start being used until the late 70’s at the earliest, there were no accurate measures of pitcher velocity prior to then.
More pitchers are throwing harder, but the max pitch speeds are not climbing as you say.
Fever – In the 70s the only pitchers who were being hit with a radar gun were the sons of cops trying to brag about their kid’s velocity!!!
It’s cos of climate change.
And inflation…
Put him on the 60 day DL. He was prob only gonna be on the roster for the first couple of months then get DFA’d anyhow.
Pippty – Sounds like you are Familia with how Bloom operates!
No strain no gain, right?
Pathetic.
WOW WOW
How is Ross Detwiler not at least 40 yet?
Rodriguez is just Hansel Robles 2.0
Even worse
milt – I remember Row Blaze! I don’t believe he is with an MLB organization anymore.
Maybe the previous term was deemed not politically correct so now it’s called “oblique.”
Bring back Darwinson Hernandez.Everybody seemd mad he was let go.
Rodriguez to 60-Day, NRI Dermody comes up to fill the void. Pitched in Big Leagues, Korea and Japan. Had a very solid spring with 8.1 scoreless innings and a 0.36 WHIP.
Sports – Was that against the minor league players on other teams? Are you thinking a good Spring with 8.1 IP is a positive? I prefer to think of it as a “not negative”. Had he been hit by the minor league batters, that would have been negative. Otherwise, in my book, it means nothing except it wasn’t bad.
Bloom is such a horrible fit for this organization. He can’t shed the small market mentality and it’s absolutely bonkers tbh.
As for Joely. Consider this a gift from the baseball Gods. You guys will be better off that he’s NOT pitching.
Kruk – Same page!! Like your thinking!!!
Maybe Paxton will be ready for the September stretch run? Lol
Nobby – I don’t know that’s pretty soon. He probably won’t be stretched out yet. Afterall, he has not pitched since Obama was President!!! hahaha
I believe he started a game down there so that would’ve been against Major Leaguers, most likely. Look at the BB:K ratio – that’s one of the more important stats (10 K, 0 BB).. He also has MLB experience, pitched in Japan and pitched in Korea so he’s not a chump. He’ll be up soon.