The Red Sox announced today that infielder Marcelo Mayer has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to July 24th, with a right wrist sprain. Infielder David Hamilton has been recalled as the corresponding move.
At this point, the severity of Mayer’s sprain is still being determined. “We’re gathering information,” Álex Cora responded when asked if surgery was a consideration, per Tim Healey of The Boston Globe. “We’ll get more over the weekend, during the week. Whenever we get to the point to see what’s going to happen, we’ll let you know.”
Time will tell if Mayer is facing a brief absence or an extended one. While the Sox surely don’t want Mayer to miss any time, there is a silver lining of his absence, as it seems it will help out a bit with their outfield logjam. Cora told reporters, including Chris Cotillo of MassLive, that the club will frequently have Ceddanne Rafaela at second base. That will lead to a regular outfield alignment of Roman Anthony, Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu, with Masataka Yoshida as the designated hitter.
The outfield picture, and the position player group in general, has been cluttered for most of the season. The Sox signed Alex Bregman in the winter and put him at third base, moving Rafael Devers to the designated hitter spot. That left Yoshida stuck on the IL, even though he was healthy enough to hit. His shoulder hadn’t recovered enough from offseason surgery to throw, so he couldn’t play the field. Anthony was also blocked, since the club had Duran, Rafaela and Abreu in the outfield.
A lot has changed since earlier in the year. The relationship between the team and Devers soured, which led to him being traded to the Giants. That opened up the DH spot for Yoshida. Anthony came up while Abreu had an oblique strain and has quickly found big league success. Abreu eventually returned from the IL, which jammed things up a bit again. It left four outfielders and Yoshida jockeying for four lineup spots.
Rafaela has some middle infield experience but the Sox seemed reluctant to move him there, which was understandable since he’s actually an elite defensive center fielder, whereas Duran’s glovework may be better suited to left field. More recently, they have softened that stance, with Rafaela taking the keystone here and there with Duran in center.
It now seems that could be the regular alignment for as long as Mayer is out. Perhaps it’s not ideal defensively but it will get the Sox out of a situation where one of their key players is on the bench every night.
It’s also possible that the situation further decreases the chances of the Sox dealing an outfielder. Due to that logjam, it had been speculated that they might trade one of their outfielders in order to bolster another part of the roster. Duran’s name came up in rumors most often for this kind of scenario, though recent reporting has suggested the Sox weren’t particularly interested in such a plan. Perhaps Rafaela’s move to the infield makes it even less likely.
In another bit of Red Sox news, Cora also provided an ominous update on lefty Patrick Sandoval, per Cotillo and Healey. The southpaw has been progressing slower than expected and has been downgraded from bullpens to just playing catch. His return this year is now doubtful.
Sandoval underwent UCL surgery last June while with the Angels. They non-tendered him and sent him into free agency. The Sox signed him to a two-year, backloaded deal with an $18.25MM guarantee. He is making $5.5MM this year and will make $12.75MMM next year. The Sox knew that they wouldn’t get anything out of Sandoval in the first half of 2025 but likely hoped for some kind of second-half return.
That now seems less and less likely. Even if he were to continue throwing bullpens soon, he would then have to ramp up to live batting practice and/or simulated games before going out on a rehab assignment. A rehab assignment usually is capped at 30 days for a pitcher but it’s common for guys recovering from UCL surgery to push that closer to two months. Given that there’s barely two months left in the season, it’s understandable why Cora would say that the clock is running out.
Photo courtesy of Bob DeChiara, Imagn Images
And this is why the Red Sox should not trade from their infield/outfield depth. Injuries will happen. Don’t mess with the chemistry, and don’t pull from your strength right now.
Go get starting pitcher and a backup catcher.
And a 1B to platoon with Romy.
Why is Blaze Jordan’s name never mentioned anymore? When all of the Devers drama was happening, Blaze was never mentioned as a possible call up. I assumed it was because he was a non-factor because he wasn’t producing in the minors, but when i looked it up he was MiLB player of the month with a + .300 BA and power while the Devers mess was unfolding. He seems to have fallen from ‘future cornerstone’ power bat to a mere afterthought in Boston and i’m curious why!
Rafaela to SF for Schmitt and Mason Black.
CR is not going anywhere, especially to SF.
Right now Rafaela is the second best player on the squad after Bregman you don’t trade him. With Mayer’s injury you can’t trade Duran because Rafaela is the 2nd baseman. Rafaela defensively is doing what Mookie has done for the Dodgers and is the Swiss army knife. Can’t trade him or Bregman anybody else though isn’t untouchable. I wouldn’t of said that a month ago, but Rafaela’s game is progressing. Oh Crochet and Chapman on the pitching side are also untouchable….
So you don’t want them to trade from their depth but you want them to get a starting pitcher and backup catcher. How are they supposed to do that without obliterating the farm system?
The Sox have more than 30 prospects to select a few to trade. Who remembers the 20 + prospects DD traded other than Margot, Moncada and Kopech. I chose to remember the 2018 Champs!
I believe the Red Sox are a high end SP (a 2 or 3) away from being legitimate contenders. Mortgage 2-3 good prospects for a high end SP, that is what they need.
As for the backup catcher, anyone would perform better than Wong offensively at this point.
Why blow up the major league roster? Unless they can find a way to rid themselves of Yoshida.
Are you suggesting that they deal prospects for a starting pitcher and backup catcher?
And a LH 1b.
Well for starting pitching…..I’d just call up the next in line to be a backup catcher. You aren’t getting more production from a vet. If ya can get Walker Buehler out the rotation we should….
The Red Sox outfield is still crowded and there is a huge need for quality SP.
The Red Sox also have guys they can promote if someone gets hurt, so it’s not the end of the world. They don’t have a top tier pitcher they can promote or have come off the IL.
“That left Yoshida stuck on the IL, even though he was healthy enough to hit.”
Pretty sure that is illegal roster manipulation. Not that teams the national media favors aren’t allowed to break the rules, but is this a statement of fact or the authors perspective?
iirc, Yoshida was healthy enough to *hit*, but not healthy enough to field. That at least was the reasoning provided previously to justify keeping him on the IL.
Knuck – You are 100% correct, he had no problem hitting in ST.
That is either a serious infraction on the Boston FO’s part of VERY irresponsible reporting from MLBTR (which seems to be happening more and more lately, I might add).
Wonder – It’s neither.
If something can’t be proven, it’s not against the rules.
No different than the Sox intentionally keeping Roman in the minors as long as they did, purely for service time manipulation.
Authors opinion as even if it’s factual the Red Sox will never be stupid enough to admit it
Rsox – He appeared in 11 Grapefruit League games and batted .286 (10-for-35) with a homer and double.
There was no hiding the fact he could DH …. if Raffy wasn’t a fulltime DH.
If a player can not play D you can ‘t require a team to activate him.
As was stated by others there is a big difference between being healthy enough to hit and healthy enough to play the field. They had a DH, so he needed to be able to play the field. How would that be illegal if he can’t play a position?
He was a DH only the previous year, except for one game. He would have been the full-time DH had they not moved Devers there. He is not a full-time outfielder. He has only played the field 1 of 8 games this year.
He’s not an OF, and they used the IL to buy time to figure out the DH situation.
If they were waiting for him to be ready to play the OF, why hasn’t he played out there more?
This is coming from a Red Sox fan.
I am not saying the team was not using the situation to their advantage and wanted him to be the DH. My point was that they could argue that since the DH position was taken he would need to be healthy enough to play the field.
Ah yeah, but I feel like if he’s healthy enough to DH and he’s a DH, then he shouldn’t be able to be stashed in the IL. The whole him playing the OF thing is just a facade.
I agree, just not illegal.
Uncle – He was a fulltime DH last year, and that was before the shoulder surgery.
Changing a player’s position/role knowing he’s not physically able to perform that new position/role is not illegal, if MLB can’t prove that’s the reason his position/role changed.
Since the Dodgers are in town, let’s use Ohtani as an example.
Last year he could physically hit, but couldn’t physically pitch. Could the Dodgers have put him on the IL all season? Yes, if Dave Roberts announced his role had changed from DH to only pitcher.
It’s very simple the Red Sox signed a superior third baseman in Bregman and the moved the superior hitter Devers to DH. That left Masa with one option get healthy enough to play the outfield or don’t play it’s open and shut. If the Red Sox didn’t sign Bregman and Devers remained at third and they still kept Masa in the minors despite the DH being open then you have something. As it is it’s a nothing burger and should stopped being even mentioned.
Ohtani actually makes the Red Sox look really bad with Yoshida. Ohtani has hit the hell out of the ball while his return to pitching has been slow. Yoshida probably should of been hitting all year by letter of the rules. Red Sox isn’t the only club that does this but yeah Ohtani makes this more noticeable.
bum – You are 100% correct!
Speaking of Ohtani, I can’t help but laugh how every time the Dodgers #9 hitter comes to the plate, Merloni emphatically talks about how the Red Sox don’t want Ohtani to bat with anybody on base.
So why the hell do the Dodgers have Ohtani batting leadoff, knowing full well that:
1) Ohtani will NEVER have anyone on base when he has his first plate appearance of each game
2) The #9 hitter has a .299 OBP
The very few additional PA’s he gets batting leadoff just ain’t worth it, as Bill James proved long ago.
Because Ohtani is the best hitter in the game and you want him to get as many at bats in each game as possible! Simple as that.
anvil – It’s been proven the additional PA’s isn’t worth the lost RBI opportunities.
BTW – I cannot believe Roberts had Freeman try to steal home. Bello was struggling badly and had already thrown 40 pitches in the inning and gone to a full count on Conforto. The caught stealing gave Bello a breather and allowed him to regroup.
Dumb, dumb decision by Roberts.
Ohtani isn’t the best hitter in the game he’s one of the best hitters but the best resides in NY and his name is JUDGE and it’s not even arguable at all.
@FPG I guess it’s because Ohtani has speed and gets on base as well for Freeman and Betts to knock in. If I was the Dodgers Im putting a contact hitter in the 9-hole. It’s a similar reason Schwarber leads off for Philly, he gets on base for guys like Harper to knock him in. Schwarber doesn’t have the speed of course, what he does is work counts deep and gets his fair share of walks without sacrificing power.
As someone that has had a labrum tear, and had it fixed by Dr. James Andrews, I can tell you that swinging a bat still hurt almost as long as the full rehab on my throwing. Him being left handed doesn’t alleviate that even when swinging. It was a very long and hard rehab, so maybe they did a couple of weeks of manipulation but I doubt much.
cdr – How long after the surgery were you swinging with pain?
Here’s how it went down with Yoshida …. until the Raffy trade, there was absolutely no place to play Yoshida. So they kept him on the IL, hardly talked about him, and there was no mention of him improving or going on a rehab assignment.
Then literally two days after the June 15th trade of Raffy, the Sox declared Yoshida healthy and would be “fast-tracked” back to the active roster. I’ve written about the timeline before, it’s pretty obvious Yoshida didn’t need to be on the IL for nearly 3 months.
It still hurts 20 years later if I throw more than 50%… I had 8-10 months of rehab, and every time I hit the ball I could feel it. It took about 14 months to feel normal with no pain. 6-7 months after, I was golfing, and stubbed a wedge and it felt like a knife in my shoulder. So my experience may be different, but it’s definitely something he’s probably still feeling right now.
That ended my career. Andrews said 80% chance I would be 80% of myself… he was right, and 80% turns a 1.8-1.9 to second into a 2.2-2.3 pop.
He was healthy enough to hit, but he couldn’t throw.
Devers was the DH, and refused to play first.
So there you go
Cubbs – You’re half right. It’s roster manipulation, but it’s not illegal in this instance.
The IL is used if a player cannot physically perform in their position/role.
Cora intentionally stated “Yoshida is an outfielder” as an excuse to stash him away on the IL because his throwing arm wasn’t 100%.
There’s absolutely no way in hell Yoshida would have played outfield with Duran, Abreu and Rafaela all in the outfield and Roman on the way. But it can’t be proven, so the Sox didn’t break any rules …. they just stretched one.
This news pretty much ends most Duran trade talk
I don’t think Duran was ever legitimately going anywhere. Breslow has to keep his options open though and if a ridiculous offer comes his way (it won’t) he’d still have to consider it
I assume we will continue to hear his name come up until the trade deadline is over. He is the most obvious trade chip if they are trying to get a controllable pitcher. Sucks that Mayer could be out for an extended period, hopefully it does not require surgery.
I don’t see a major trade now either unless it just involves prospects. Maybe trading a Campbell could yield a starting pitcher worth having.
Mayer’s season might be over if surgery is needed so Breslow may need to look for a First Baseman if Romy and Toro need to cover other spots.
Kristian Campbell is still striking out at high clip (35 SO’s in 87 AB’s at Worcester) while trying to learn First Base and i don’t know if we see him again before September, if at all this season
If they can get a rental 1st baseman for cheap, it makes sense. I sure don’t want to see Hamilton getting playing time when he can’t hit at the major league level.
2.6 war last year, when he got consistent playing time. 33 sbs. .248 isn’t great, but it’s not “not” hitting either. He’s a guy that doesn’t do well getting a couple ABs a week.
He has a career .626 WHIP.
Next.
Just focused on this year. No doubt he had fewer opportunities, but he is only going to get occasional playing time and is not someone who is hitting in that role.
Uncle – I think the Sox are hoping KC improves his hitting in Woosta, once he does he will be called up. Apparently he’s feeling comfortable at first base.
Fever- I really hope Campbell can put it all together.
Uncle – Yeah they really need him, especially if Mayer is out for a long time. He’s had a lot of injuries in his pro career including a previous wrist injury, the kid just can’t stay healthy. You know who he reminds me of? Glen Hoffman, another smooth fielding infielder from Cali who was always injured.
Sandoval has the potential to be a good pitcher so if his rehab takes until next year it will be worth because rushing him could cause more damage to his arm.
Charles – The problem with these 2-year injured player contracts is that they NEVER get into a game the first year, which means they will need time next year to shake off the rust and get back to the level they were at prior to the injury.
Look at Liam, Paxton, Giolito, etc.
What the Red Sox don’t realize, they are paying big bucks for guys to rehab and work their way back to being a good pitcher …. and then when they finally are fully back, they walk. It’s dumb as hell.
Is Sandoval worth over $18M for maybe 4 good months next season? Absolutely not.
Fever- These reclamation projects cost enough combined that we could have got an ace. I get that they’re buying the potential, but we have seen it doesn’t usually pan out. Some of the solid and reliable starters could have cost about the same amount as these two year deals for maybe a half season. I don’t get it.
Uncle – I totally agree! Imagine if they had spent the money on Lugo, Shota, Wacha, Pivetta, Eovaldi ….. it’s crazy how they lowball guys who are deserving more, and then blow a ton of money on high risk players trying to return from injury.
Why is Vaughn Grissom not even mentioned as an infield option? Or as a trade chip of any kind? Isn’t he hitting .280 or so at Worcester? Is he that much worse at second than the other options?
Somebody on here said awhile back that Grissom’s stats are a bit tainted in that he’s still having trouble with breaking pitches and such.
The Red Sox roster tangles continue to burden this team. Moving Rafaela to second just as he’s finding his way to an elite level of play is a bad idea. The Sox lack identity. The Sox lack front office leadership – more of the same.
Imagine if the deal with the Giants hadn’t been made and they asked Devers to try playing second base?
Or centerfield even.
“We have an elite defender in CF. Let’s move him to 2B.”
Makes sense.
It does when you don’t have a ML ready second baseman and an azzload of outfielders.
Ghost – I’ve been wanting Rafaela moved to 2B all season, but you know people are gonna point to his massive hitting slump (.472 OPS over the past 7 games) and claim it’s because he’s playing 2B. Tonight Loumer said Raffy is back to “hacking away at every pitch”.
As a team they’re really missing Raffy’s bat ….. they are hitting an MLB-worst .186 in the second half with an MLB-worst 79 K’s.
Moving Rafaela to 2B is like using a Rolls Royce to take the little league team for ice cream. He is a special OF with a middling, but improving bat. They are diminishing his value every time they pencil him in at second. This FO never ceases to amaze me.
And where exactly is Vaughn Grissom? He got one opportunity while Hamilton is always on the first shuttle up from AAA. Are they not going to to get ANYTHING out the returns from these awful trades?
At least Roman has a good eye and exceptional exit velo…
swan – You hit the nail on the head about diminishing value, the Sox do that a lot because they don’t plan ahead or make good decisions.
They devalued Raffy by making him a fulltime DH, they devalued Yoshida last year by making him a fulltime DH, they devalued Campbell by moving him all over the place, and now they are devaluing Rafaela by moving him to 2B. And just to be clear, I’m not criticizing the Sox for moving him to 2B now …. I’m criticizing them for their poor decisions that led to them being forced to move Rafaela to 2B.
If Cora Continues to platoon Abreu why is the talk about Duran being traded? Cora is basically saying Abreu is not good enough to play against lefties which is BS because his platooning garbage and hardly ever giving him a chance to hit versus lefties is just another reason why the Sox struggle to develop these kids. Tonight was another example… pinch hitting for Abreu is the 7th….
And another thing…… why is the guy with 20 Hr’s batting 7th and Yoshida hitting 5th????? SMH CORA
Also, why pinch Hit Romy for Abreu to lead off the 7th, when he uses Refsnyder as a leadoff hitter normally? The lack of consistency with Cora’s decisions show he is just throwing darts hoping for a Bulls Eye.
Cora is clearly in over his head. He couldn’t wait for someone to get hurt so he wouldn’t have to actually manage the team. Now that Mayer is on the IL, Cora gets to rekindle his “bromance” with David Hamilton.
Everyone knows what Hamilton has to offer. Sox always keep these guys around like they are going to get better and they never do. They are what they are! Give Grissom a shot and if he sucks move on! Cora has such a soft spot for utility player its a joke!