Price, Sox discuss surgery
Cortisone shot did not help injured wrist heal
David Price was hoping a cortisone injection in early August would quickly heal his left wrist and provide a road to recovery before the 2019 season ended, but it’s not looking that way.
Price still hasn’t been able to throw anything but fastballs while trying to recover from a cyst in the same wrist in which he dealt with carpal tunnel syndrome last year.
With the Red Sox out of contention and just two weeks left in the season, team officials planned to talk to Price on Tuesday about potential surgery that would start the healing before the offseason.
“That’s something we’re going to talk about, if that’s an option, if we need it,” manager Alex Cora said. “Obviously it has limited him as far as being able to compete, and I think it actually kind of limited him when he was pitching, what he was able to do. We saw it with command, and that’s not him. He can get hit, that’s part of it. But with command, he was way off. He didn’t have that twoseamer in the whole season, and that’s a pitch that throughout his career, he always aced it. That’s … a putaway pitch against righthanded hitters, and he didn’t have it.”
Price said in early August he was hoping the shot would “blow it up” and clear the cyst.
“But if not, it’s something that we’d have cut out, and that wouldn’t be a very long recovery process,” Price said at the time.
Almost six weeks later, surgery could be the best option, though the Sox still need to discuss it with Price. Assistant general managers
Eddie Romero and Brian O’Halloran planned to meet with trainer Brad Pearson and Price to discuss his options on Tuesday.
“This guy is too important to us to just throw him out there with just a fastball,” Cora said. “We’ll address it and see what the next step is with it.”
If Price’s season is done, the 34-year-old will have finished 7-5 with a 4.28 ERA in just 107⅓ innings. He has a 3.84 ERA in four seasons with the Red Sox, averaging just 147 innings per year.
Sale rehabs in Florida
The Red Sox have yet to learn much about Chris Sale’s elbow injury since he received a platelet-rich plasma injection on Aug. 19.
“Chris is still in Fort Myers,” Cora said. “We’ll see him in Tampa when we go down there. … He’s making progress. He gets tested throughout and everything looks like he’s doing better, but there’s no rush here. We’ll know after the season what the program is going to be.” …
Heath Hembree (elbow) threw a bullpen session Tuesday and could be activated for the final week of the season.
Betts has inflammation
An MRI with team doctors Monday revealed inflammation in Mookie Betts’ left foot.
He was held out of the lineup again Tuesday but still hopes to play again this season.
“I think we have a good enough team that I don’t have to play to go out and win,” Betts said. “We’ve proven that. So I think health is the most important thing. … It feels alright. I think I’ll just give it a little time and hopefully it comes around.”
Cora said Betts won’t play the outfield on the turf against Tampa Bay this weekend and would only be used as the designated hitter, if he is capable of playing at all. …
Michael Chavis (oblique) is taking batting practice again and might be ready to play this weekend.
No excuses for bats
The Red Sox offense has been disappointing Cora with too many strikeouts in the past two weeks.
The evolution of the game has changed to favor an allor-nothing approach at the plate, but that won’t be an acceptable excuse for Cora.
“The game was the same last year, and we didn’t strike out, so that’s something we’ll address in the offseason,” Cora said. “We talked a lot about it in October last year. It was actually something that everybody was impressed with the way we put the ball in play with two strikes, the way we put the ball in play with men in scoring position, and the way we put the ball in play with men at third and less than two outs. This year we didn’t do a good job.”
Cora does his job
With Dave Dombrowski gone, Cora was asked if he’ll have more of a say in decisions made in the front office.
“More of a say? I think my communication with Dave was outstanding and on a daily basis,” Cora said. “He knew where I was standing, how I felt about the team, and obviously I knew where he was. I don’t know how that’s going to change, but like I told you guys before we left on that road trip, I’ll be the same guy. Nothing is going to change me.”