Pedey efforts for comeback
Second baseman targets return in May
RED SOX NOTEBOOK
There finally appears to be some clarity on when Dustin Pedroia might return to the Red Sox.
On the disabled list and still in Fort Myers as he slowly builds up strength while recovering from knee surgery, Pedroia is targeting a May 25 return date according to a story in The Athletic.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said he was unsure if that date was accurate.
“How many days does May have, 31 days? Put down May 32,” Cora joked. “We’ll see. It’s a work in progress. Whenever he’s ready, he’ll be here.”
Pedroia only recently began appearing in extended spring training games and played three innings yesterday, Cora said.
The 34-year-old second baseman still needs to prove he’s ready for a rehab assignment and get some minor league game action under his belt before he’s ready for his season debut.
“He’s in the beginning of the spring training process,” Cora said. “It’s like he just played Boston College (as the Sox do each February). People think it’s only the knee, but now that he’s moving around and doing all this stuff, it’s all the soreness that comes into the equation. I think Jason Varitek always said, ‘You can work out all you want in the offseason and do everything, but you can’t prepare for standing up for three hours in spikes.’
“Now, that is part of his process. He’s moving around, standing up the whole time, playing in games, hopefully more innings, obviously. There’s going to be some soreness and we have to see how he reacts to it. Not only his knee, but obviously his hamstrings and everything. Like I told Pedey, I said, ‘Pedey, man, when you get here it’s full-go.’ We’ll have to be patient.”
According to The Athletic, Pedroia said he’s targeting May 12 to begin his rehab assignment. He is scheduled to stay in Fort Myers the rest of this week, Cora said.
Nunez work in progress
Eduardo Nunez continues to get the majority of the starts at second base in Pedroia’s absence.
He’s made only one official error at second base and it came on Sunday, when he fielded a ball on the run and threw it into the Red Sox’ dugout. But his defense has come into question given his lack of range at the position while he plays with a balky knee. He also fell down catching a relay throw on Sunday and missed a hard grounder that bounced by right by him for a single in that same game.
“That’s another guy that with everything that’s going on as far as injuries and players banged up, we’re playing him probably a little bit more than we really want to,” Cora said. “For how much I want him to get the rest, it gets to the point that there’s nothing you can do. You’ve got to play.”
Betts, Holt injury updates
Mookie Betts was held out of the lineup again while he recovers from right hamstring tightness he suffered on Saturday.
He was available off the bench, but was never used.
Brock Holt, on the disabled list with a hamstring strain, is feeling better and should only miss the minimum 10 days.
“He looks like it’s not going to be something that’s going to take a while,” Cora said. “Today he took ground balls and he’s improving.”
Lots of catching up to do
The Red Sox catchers entered among the worst in baseball in the season’s first month.
They ranked last in WAR (negative-0.7), according to FanGraphs, last in OPS (.426), 29th in average (.167) and 22nd in caught-stealing percentage (16.7 percent).
Christian Vazquez has been getting most of the starts behind the plate with Sandy Leon the back up.
“I do feel that it’s small sample size,” Cora said. “We’ll keep working with them. We know that they are better than what we’ve seen so far.”
The lack of production has probably been most surprising from Vazquez, who signed a three-year contract extension before the season after he hit .346 with an .899 OPS over his final 40 games in 2017.
After a 1-for-4 night last night, he’s hitting .187 to start the year.
“Early in the season, he was hitting the ball hard,” Cora said. “It got to a point he didn’t see results, and he started chasing hits. When you start chasing hits, he started chasing pitches out of the zone. Instead of hitting the ball hard because the pitches are in the strike zone, you start expanding and it’s weak contact. That is what we’ve seen for probably two weeks now. Hopefully he’s getting closer to what we expect.”
Back on mound
Reliever Tyler Thornburg made his first game appearance since 2016 last night. He missed all of last year with a shoulder injury and had surgery to treat thoracic outlet syndrome last June.
Pitching for Pawtucket, Thornburg allowed one hit and struck out three over 16 pitches in a scoreless inning.
“He threw the ball very well tonight,” Pawtucket manager Kevin Boles said. “The fastball was coming out. The breaking ball is impressive. That curveball. That’s something. That was a pretty good breaking ball there. He threw a couple for land strikes. The fastball had good down angle to it. He was really impressive tonight.”