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.
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.
👎
Romy’s a good player, but the Red Sox are up to their armpits in infielders. They’ll survive.
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.
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!
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
Look at Romy getting his own MLBTR article…nice
Tremendously locked in!!