Ramon Urias is in concussion protocol after a scary incident in the Orioles’ 7-6 loss to the White Sox today. Urias was hit in the head by a Kendall Graveman fastball in the seventh inning of the game, but fortunately the infielder was able to leave the field under his own power. At the very least, Urias certainly doesn’t look like he’ll be playing in Sunday’ game, and it remains to be seen if a stint on the seven-day concussion-related injury list is necessary. Urias had a single and two walks prior to his HBP today, boosting the Gold Glover’s slash line to a productive .250./.388/.400 over his first 49 plate appearances of the season.
Infielder Joey Ortiz would be the roster replacement if Urias is sidelined, as MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko was among the reporters who noted that Ortiz was removed from the lineup for Triple-A Norfolk tonight. Since the Orioles don’t play on Monday, it’s possible the club might not make a roster move prior to Sunday’s game, in order to give Urias more time to recover and undergo further examination in the hopes that an IL stint could be avoided. Ortiz has yet to make his MLB debut, and is yet another talented youngster from Baltimore’s farm system — both MLB Pipeline and Baseball America included Ortiz near the end of their preseason top-100 prospect lists.
More from around the AL East…
- Jordan Romano earned a save in painful fashion today, as the Blue Jays closer was hit by a hard Wander Franco comebacker to the mound in the final out of a 5-2 win over the Rays. The Jays told reporters (including The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath) that Romano suffered a right rib contusion on the play, though x-rays were negative. After pitching on three of the last four days, Romano was probably already going to be unavailable for Sunday’s game, but it remains to be seen if the closer will have to miss any more time. Romano has five saves and a 3.86 ERA over seven innings this season, with all three of his runs allowed during a disastrous outing against the Angels last Sunday.
- With the Red Sox shorthanded in the middle infield, assistant GM Brian O’Halloran told MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo that the Sox are “comfortable with the group we have,” though the team is “always looking to find ways to improve the roster. Especially when you have injuries, and significant injuries. That’s even more heightened.” Enrique Hernandez has had to move from shortstop to center field to fill in for the injured Adam Duvall, subtracting from a middle infield mix that was already thin with Trevor Story and Adalberto Mondesi on the 60-day IL. Cotillo notes that it’s pretty early in the season for any significant trade to take place, though a lower-level swap or even a waiver claim could help the Red Sox fill some holes.
- Jeffrey Springs struggled to a 7.08 ERA over 20 1/3 innings with the Red Sox in 2020, and Springs told Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe that he regretting having “severely underperformed” during his lone season in a Sox uniform. “I think I put too much pressure on myself there,” Springs said. “I felt like I had to put up a zero every time and that made it harder on myself. That’s a bad mentality to have.” The Sox pivoted by dealing Springs to the Rays as part of a four-player trade during the 2020-21 offseason, yet now that deal is looking like a regret on Boston’s part, as Springs has become the latest pitcher to blossom in Tampa Bay. Springs has an outstanding 2.53 ERA in 196 innings in a Rays uniform, but his great start to the 2023 season has now been interrupted by ulnar neuritis in his left arm, resulting in what will be a lengthy IL visit.
Sell Chang. Value won’t be higher than right now. Maybe they can get two cups of chowda in return… Seriously, it was nice to see him have a big game. It’s not the everyday players that the season hinges on. The starters have to get better as otherwise the relief staff will be shot by July 4th.
With little help coming from the woo-sox also. Sure.. Mata will end up as a reliever and be of help later on and Bello may end up being used i relief some in 2023, but of the 2023 woo-sox relievers? Pathetic as a unit. Shuggart and “maybe” Politi of a little use. Rest are junkball throwing retreads, incapable of getting outs, or wild throwing guys throwing mid 90’s.
Poor job filling in the AAA relief corps this year and been saying this all winter. Short sighted for something should have been apparent and is always needed at mlb level eventually.
johnsilver;
I respect Mr. Bloom and have preached patience.
But between the pitchers and the middle infielders – I was in shock to watch the game the other day and see Bobby Dalbec starting at SS…..and I don’t know how Enrique Hernandez could start at SS for more than a few days waiting for the regular SS to get over an injury – it seems like the Red Sox need to call up some of their young players and give them a chance to acclimate themselves to the major leagues.
The Pirates….PIRATES….beat them 3 straight games…..in Fenway Park!
When the Celtics and Bruins are done with the playoffs – good or bad – New England sports fans will zero in on the Sox…..and it’s going to get very ugly.
@Samuel: Shortstop isn’t a new position to Dalbec. He’s played in games there in each of the last two seasons, and he played there in spring training this year. Yes, he’s typically a third or first baseman, but he wasn’t thrown out there with no experience.
Holden–Well certainly Dalbec has very little pro experience at the position. to figure any of the 3 stooges the Sox have tried to replace Xander at shortstop would work out is beyond reasonable. Why doesn’t Bloom just come out and admit that these are all short term stopgaps { incl Story} until Mayer is ready.
dewey you pretty much nailed it. Bloom went cheap trying to fill Xander’s spot. Chang is an embarrassment for a team seriously hoping to contend for playoff spot. Same with the C and 2B positions and Casas does not look MLB ready at this point. Hopefully he is not following in the footsteps of Chavis and Dalbec. All true RS fans can hope for is another last place AL East finish which will be Bloom’s 3rd in his 4 seasons and that FINALLY Henry will wake up and can his a..$$
Bloom signed Story to take Xander’s place. Not cheap.
Then bloom went cheap in pedroia’s spot and still went cheap with bogeys spot.
He signed a weak player at the position as a ‘bargain’ when the guy was damaged goods and didn’t obtain a known quality backup to cover the damage/risk known by and seen by the rest of MLB.
If you don’t think the signing was an attempt at a ‘bargain’ ask yourself what SS of Bogey’s ability have been signing for, you know, the guy who had already put up 1 war in the first 9 games of the year? Yeah, that bogey
$24M per year for Story may have been a bargain, but it is not cheap. Let’s check back in on the Bogaerts contract over the 11 years and see how it goes.
GA Sox– Bloom is just a terrible GM period. His FA signings have either been overpays like Story or cheap short term deals with veteran guys and almost none have panned out. Thinking that any of Kike, Dalbec, or Chang could replace Xander is beyond pathetic. It is obvious these are all short term fixes till Mayer arrives in 2-3 yrs. And there were REAL shortstops available that Bloom COULD have brought in on short term deals.
As for the reported strong farm system Bloom has built name me a single Top SP prospect he has acquired in his 3 plus years in Boston? For about the 68th year in a row the Sox SP stinks.
Someone missed my point or it wasn’t worth focusing on. I don’t care (to a degree) about the every day hitters. Good defense and exceptions pitching can carry a team to the playoffs when the hot team usually wins. The starters other than Pivetta either gave an injury history or just came off their first major surgery. You need to stockpile as many arms as you can. Unless the old dogs like Sale, Paxton and Kluber suddenly stay healthy AND perform like in the past, the relievers will all be burnt out before the ASG.
Randy – I think Casas is the mirror image of Dalbec. No plate discipline, which is particularly important with the larger strike zone because of their size. I’m beginning to wonder if either will ever figure it out.
fever i thought the book on Casas was that he had good plate discipline?
it is. He’s had good plate discipline all through out the minors
acell10-that is what I thought. i am not giving up on him
I wouldn’t either. Comparing him to Dalbec isn’t quite fair. Dalbec was always a free swinger with a ton of power but a ton of strike outs (something like >30% in his career). While there is swing and miss to Casas he’s show the ability to discern pitches and get on base while in the minors and somewhat in the majors. Prospect development isn’t always linear and it takes time for guys to adjust.
Randy – Correct, but he hasn’t had it against ML pitchers. My fear is he’s following in Dalbec’s footsteps … tears up AAA pitching, but fails miserably in the Big Leagues. I hope my fear doesn’t come to fruition.
Ooooh ooooh, somebody got pissed off
do you posters run a team or do you lose on your own?
Not sure what your point is Curly.
Bloom strikes again!
Jake–today’s Sox line-up consists of guys with the following BA’S– .194, .175, .216, .156, .167, .095. Bloom strikes again !!!
O’Halloran basically just said that the Red Sox brass are comfortable losing.
O’Halloran is an idiot.
I think the Red Sox may prefer to build a contender from the farm system. So, they may not be going all in to win now so they can get a better draft pick. If we can see it’s a mediocre team, I’m sure Bloom can see it. I don’t mind this because I follow the farm system closely and I like what I see there. If someone does not follow the farm system, I can see how they are likely going out of their mind now.
The Sox have an in-house option in David Hamilton at AAA. Thru 41 PA’s Hamilton is hitting .385 with an OPS of 1.133 with 3 HR’s and 6 steals. There seems to be no reason not to bring him up to play SS while Hernandez is in CF. They need to swap out Wong for Jorge Alfaro while they are at it. They need offense to counter the bad pitching that has plagued them early on
Rsox – Have you see the kid play? He knows Cora from when he was bench coach in Houston and Hamilton was at UT. Otherwise, the guy would be in the low minors.
Summary on Hamilton – Defense – .950 fielding percentage just slightly better than the BUTCHER OF BOSTON. 908 at bats with 23 HRs so not a power hitter. A .260 average with a .344 OBP.. If those numbers don’t sound so bad, consider almost none of them are at the AAA level. He hit .250 at AA but in 2023 he’s doing MUCH better but has only had 42 at bats. That’s less than Spring Training. Dalbec is not worse on defense and has faced MLB pitchers. This guy will never beat out Story or Mayer so having him on the MLB roster is a waste of time. Again, he’s a Cora guy so it will probably happen but just like Kiki he will prove Cora has no clue as to who is good he’s all about nepotism.
KD: From what I have seen, including in-person, Hamilton may be a butcher at SS. Hopefully, he has improved defensively. They did start him twice in CF last year, so he may wind up in the OF.
I was going to say something about my team here but I’m sick of baiters like Fever Pitch and KD17 who disagree, denounce your opinion, and put words in your mouth. They have been ruining the experience here and because of it, I don’t know if I’m even staying.
But yes, we look like a .500 team but it’s early. Bloom has made many mistakes but not many are long term miseries we have to deal with. Still, if we don’t improve, he will be gone.
I think it is possible that John Henry may value avoiding long-term mistakes more than anything else. That would be a good reason to hire a guy from Tampa Bay.
I dunno. Hiring bloom may be one of those long term mistakes itself. Curse of the bloombino?
suit – If that were true, why give Story a 6-year contract and Devers a 10-year extension that starts next season?
Fever: I meant this as a reply to agree with Blooms BFF. The Devers contract may turn out OK since he is signed only through age 36. I still think management asked Bloom to make a “big signing” when fans were complaining. So, I think Bloom tried to do two things at once: satisfy management and get a better priced SS to replace Bogaerts. I really doubt a guy from the Rays would think the Story contract was a good idea.
Don’t care what the Bosox do personal-wise, just burn those IKEA color-schemed uniforms!
Cartrow – I don’t like them either, but if they keep winning this holiday weekend I wouldn’t be surprised if they continue to wear them past the holiday.
They have worn them during winning streaks in the past, they are very superstitious.
Hey nation.. anyone see who got the win yesterday??? My man Brais!! … I know I know… even a blind squirrel finds a nut…. But he kept trout and ohtanhi in the the yard and it’s a start!!!