Red Sox utilityman Romy Gonzalez has been behind in camp due to shoulder troubles. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection a couple weeks ago in hopes of being ready for Opening Day, but the righty-swinging infielder now tells Christopher Smith of MassLive.com that he doesn’t think it’s realistic. Gonzalez is running and doing agility work but isn’t fielding, throwing or swinging a bat yet. He says he won’t begin hitting until next Friday (March 6) at the earliest.
“At this point, I think the ramp-up would be a little too quick and it’d be a disservice I feel like to myself and the team if I’m not ready to roll and have a good build up,” Gonzalez tells Smith.
The 29-year-old Gonzalez suffered a shoulder injury in one of the final games of the 2025 regular season. He spent the offseason rehabbing the injury and thought he was in a good place when the calendar flipped to 2026, but he began experiencing renewed discomfort after ramping up his hitting program last month in preparation for spring training.
Gonzalez is a key part of Boston’s lineup, specifically against left-handed pitching. He’s fresh off a career-best .305/.343/.483 showing that saw him pop nine homers in a career-high 341 plate appearances. The overwhelming amount of Gonzalez’s damage came against left-handed pitching, which he torched for a .331/.378/.600 batting line (162 wRC+) in 143 plate appearances. His .286/.318/.400 line against righties (198 plate appearances) was solid as well, but even including that performance, Gonzalez is just a .243/.267/.349 hitter (65 wRC+) in 439 plate appearances versus fellow righties.
If Gonzalez is indeed unavailable when the Red Sox’ season opener rolls around on March 26, that would likely improve the chances that one of Nate Eaton, Andruw Monasterio, Kristian Campbell or Anthony Seigler makes the roster. Smith calls Monasterio the early favorite, but it’ll obviously hinge on spring performances from the group. They’re all vying for the final bench spot alongside backup catcher Connor Wong, veteran utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa and outfielder/designated hitter Masataka Yoshida.
A healthy Gonzalez perhaps renders that competition moot, but it increasingly sounds as though there’ll be at least one bench spot open — possibly more, depending on health or other transactions. The Red Sox have discussed their outfield glut in trades throughout the winter, with Jarren Duran standing as the most commonly cited trade possibility. However, Boston has established a high asking price — understandably so — which has not yet been met. There’s also been plenty of speculation about Boston trying to find a taker for a portion of Yoshida’s contract, but with two years and $36MM yet to be paid out, that’s a tall order.
While the potential loss of Gonzalez is a blow to the team’s depth and potency against lefties, there’s no indication he’s suffered any kind of setback or that he’s looking at an especially long-term absence. He’s making $1.6MM this season in the first of three arbitration seasons and is under club control through 2028.
The Red Sox open with three games in Cincinnati, where they’ll likely face a pair of lefties (Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo). They’ll then head to Houston, where the Astros will deploy an all-righty rotation, before playing host to a Padres team that also looks set for an entirely right-handed starting staff.
This is Nick Sogard erasure 😞 Hope Romy gets bavk on track without too much fuss, the outlook vs. LHP without him isn’t nearly as good.
with Monastero and Kiner-Falefa, it seems Sogard has already been erased, especially when Romy returns.
“outlook vs. LHP without him isn’t nearly as good.”
You could say something similar to that about any specialist player in baseball.
Red Sox brought in these righties:
Contreras
Durbin
Kiner-Fafela
Monasterio
They’ll be fine.
Romy had the 9th-highest wRC+ vs. LHP among qualified hitters last year. It’s a significant blow to the vs.-LHP lineup even though they did get some good reinforcements.
I agree. Every injury hurts every team.
But, the Romy numbers you highlight are still part-time numbers. while completely ignoring his poor defense. Also, Breslow brought in several players to lessen the blow.
At this point in ST, only being down a part-time specialist,while all the full-time players, including the pitchers, are healthy, is a problem most teams in the league would trade for. Look no further than Baltimore for an example.
Okay you’re right, I don’t care if Romy gets back quickly or not. Nothing matters.
Romy had a .978 against lefties last year, but with a .387 BABIP. If you regress that to .300, then his OPS regresses to .804. Monasterio had a .837. If you regress Monasterio BABIP to .300, his adjusted OPS is .811.
I’d rather have Romy, but I don’t think it will a significant blow.
“Okay you’re right, I don’t care if Romy gets back quickly or not. Nothing matters.”
No, I think youre right, lets ignore the Yankees being down two top starters and a shortstop and wallow in our own pity.
—
Youre a Glass is always Half Empty Guy. Im not.
😂 What are you on about, guy? All I said at the top was that I hoped Romy got back soon because he improves the lineup and you’re so upset about it…
Me? Im saying Red Sox will be fine and have plenty of RH bats, that also play defense and arent expected to have any regression in 2026. While, all the time having a very healthy rest of the lineup.
You, then say “I don’t care if Romy gets back quickly or not. Nothing matters.”
Thats, before I gave you my flippant response. So I’ll ask you the same “What are you on about, guy?” — When you debate something, you need to treat people with respect, or you get equally rude responses.
Boys! Boys!
Why would a Boston fan give a crap about the Yankees problems?
When did I say I care about them? I compared them. Big difference.
I did not realize Romy was a poor defender, I was thinking he was more average (not his strength, but not a serious detriment). I need to go review his defensive stats. Certainly a utility guy but seemed pretty dependable when he had an opportunity and definitely an offensive threat.
I agree that having healthy starters is the priority and so far we have been lucky, but it is early so don’t want to jinx it. The Sox are also lucky to have the depth they do. When the season starts some of those role players on the bench are going to be the deciding factors in close games so I do hope we have the best players available in those positions at that point.
Meow – Agreed! Not having both Ref and Rom will definitely be a drop in offense from last year.
Exactly! The sky has fallen, and nothing can be done about it.
styme – Try looking at the positives for once!
Possibly best outfield and best pitching staffs in MLB.
If they perform as expected, they’ll get a WC and then anything is possible.
Sorry, didn’t think I needed to /s on that one. Thought it was obvious. Being a Tigers fan, I would think this is comparable to McKinstry being out, except he plays more positions, and isn’t a short side platoon. If Detroit doesn’t have the depth to cover, they weren’t planning on winning, anyway. Boston will be just fine.
styme – Against LHP Romy had a .978 OPS, and Ref had a .959 OPS.
That’s a lot of offense to try and make up for against LHP.
Doesn’t mean the Astros rotation is going to be easy to face!
Man I love Romy, but the guy can’t catch a break injury wise.
Bro changed the color of his socks and got good.
Honestly at this point, let Yoshida go and best of luck to him whenever he goes. We’re not getting anything for him and any team that wants him will be happy enough to wait to pick him up for league minimum. The DH spot will be best used as a rotating day of rest for the OF and 1B and give Cassas a shot.
👎
Sabe – The offense is already lacking and half the roster has a track record of injuries, letting Yoshida go for nothing would be beyond foolish (which means they probably will).
It’s not so much we’re lacking offense as we’re lacking power which is not something Yoshida would provide anyway. Not to mention Yoshida is one of the people with an injury record.
Though I suppose I should be more clear. I don’t think they should release him today. At the end of ST if there are no injury issues then release him.
The way I see it is it’s a matter of resources. Four outfielders for three spots, three of whom may provide more power than most of the infield. So there will be some rotation between Duran and Anthony at DH. Add to that you have Casas who despite an injury history of his own has much more power potential than Yoshida. I’d rather they gamble on giving Casas more playing time than Yoshida when they want to give an outfielder a day off or Contreras a day off.
We don’t even know if Casas is going to come back strong. He was not looking impressive to start the season before the injury. Yoshida carried the offense at the end the year. No he won’t be that big bat to hit 30 home runs (lost that when Devers was traded) but if healthy he could get on base more than the majority of the players and that can have a major impact. He may get hurt again or may not hit like he did at the end of last year, but with the potential he has you don’t just send him packing.
For now we just need to see if everyone can stay healthy and see who earns a spot on the team. If Yoshida is hitting well and we don’t need him, there will be trade interest. If he sucks that is a whole different story.
This tanks the team for the rest of the season. Like a chicken nugget surrendering to an ocean of mayonnaise, I’m not really sure there’s a way forward after this loss. Reggie Martinez was an essential player, and I don’t mean in the locker room playing backgammon and solitaire. The Red Sox need a power move now, I think they should sign Max Kepler.
Kepler has 80 game PED suspension.
Brotha this was an AI joke comment, I don’t think he’s serious
Still, Romy has one of the best mustaches in modern baseball!
The minor league non stache pic next to the major league stache pic on baseball reference looks like a father/son pic, haha.
It’s not a coincidence that the mustache = increased production and plate discipline.
Not sure why folks don’t realize this yet, but IKF is the opening day starting second baseman.
No, what’s on second.
Probably because they want to give the job to a Mayer/Romy platoon and have IKF be the utility man.
What about Caleb Durbin?
I don’t know.
3rd base !!
You got it Gary!
haha, I did too.
Gun – Durbin will likely play 3B.
Yesterday they went with the expected primary regular season lineup, except Narvaez rested after playing the prior day.
Gary – I’ve been saying that since they signed him, you don’t pay $6M for a bench player who can’t hit. IKF is gonna play a LOT.
Perhaps because they knew Romy was injured and Mayer would be sent down to manipulate his service time.
What would Mets need to give up for Duran, if the Mets eat Yoshida’s contract at same time?
A lifetime supply of the pretzels they sell outside of the stadium does it for me.
However, I think the Red Sox will want more than that. To be honest, I don’t think they match up.
The Red Sox are not trading Duran… unless the Mets gave them Vientos & Nolan Mclean…. and Obvious that isn’t happening
Makes absolutely no sense the Mets want to trade for Duran and eat Yoshida’s contract. They could’ve used that cash to sign Tucker for $70M a year.
Duran and Yoshida make 25m a year between them, great math bro.
Baty for Duran and Yoshida sounds a lot better than the Baty for Duran straight up proposals I’ve seen
Duran’s value is so much higher than Baty… amazing how Red Sox fans undervalue their own Major League players…. smh
Pretty sure that guy isn’t all red sox fans bro
Maybe Baty for Yoshida. Not sure why people are high on him, definitely not worth Duran.
Look at Romy getting his own MLBTR article…nice
Tremendously locked in!!
The Sox have only themselves to blame for not being more aggressive in their pursuit of Brendan Donovan
Yeah, how tragic.
Whatever will they do?
Right? Glad to see you agree
They’re better off letting Mayer take the job and run with it.
Hank, I have a sneaking suspicion they want Meyer to start the year in AAA.
Nope.
Gary, unless he doesn’t seem ready I think Mayer will get one of the starting positions. I know they overpaid for him to be a utility guy, but I do believe the plan is to have IKF be the super utility guy not a starter. At least they have options with all of the potential infielders in camp.
Brendan Donovan is SOOOOO overrated
I don’t think he’s overrated or underrated I think he’s rated right where he should be. I’m not claiming he’s all that, but he is a useful piece.
let – True there’s plenty of multi-positional infielders, but how many can replace Rom’s offense?
Contreras, Casas, Story and Mayer are injury prone.
IKF sucks.
I like Mayer but he hasn’t shown he can hit MLB pitching yet.
I like Durbin but a sophomore jinx is possible.
It’s totally understandable the infield is ranked 26th in projected WAR this season.
Fever- We should have a better idea how much Romy will be missed by the end of spring training. Based on last year’s performance he definitely seems like he will be missed, but maybe someone will surprise us this spring. Romy did not have the same value when we first got him, so somebody might step up and be this year’s catch of the offseason. Monasterio seems like he has potential and I have high hopes for Durbin to have an impact on the team. Not that I am not hoping Romy is back healthy sooner than later.