E-Rod tweaks left knee
Catches spike during bullpen session, start pushed back
FORT MYERS — An injury-prone Red Sox rotation now without David Price has a razor-thin margin of error in 2020.
Eduardo Rodriguez’s latest knee injury doesn’t help.
“It’s a concern, I think, when you have a history,” interim manager Ron Roenicke said.
Rodriguez said Saturday that he’s confident he won’t miss extended time with a sore left knee suffered Wednesday when he fell down while warming up for a bullpen session.
He was confident in previous years too. But he made just 20, 24 and 23 starts in 2016, ‘17 and ‘18, respectively.
“I know how it is when something is really, really bad,” Rodriguez said Saturday. “It happened to my right knee like 10 times. Now I know how it is. This was not even close to the one with the right knee.”
This time, it’s his left knee. Rodriguez hurt it when he fell awkwardly on the mound. He said his spike got stuck and caused the fall.
“It just felt like a twist when I went down, when I rolled a little bit,” he said Saturday. “But nothing crazy on it. I threw a regular bullpen today.”
Roenicke was asked about it Thursday and said he wasn’t concerned. But by Saturday, Roenicke said Rodriguez had become sore and would have his first spring start pushed back.
“When he fell the other day, the knee got a little sore,” Roenicke said. “It is not like the other knee where he had issues. This is a minor thing, at least right now it certainly is. But he’s still a little uncomfortable with it.”
Instead of starting today, the lefty will move to the backfields and pitch in a controlled environment on Monday. The team will measure his effort level with the Trackman device and see if he’s able to pitch with the level of intensity necessary to green light his progression.
Unfortunately, knee injuries have been an issue for Rodriguez his entire career.
It began in 2016, when he dislocated his right knee cap catching fly balls in batting practice during spring training. The injury played a big role in a disappointing season in which he made 20 starts and posted a 4.71 ERA.
That December, he hurt his knee again during winter ball. He made just 24 starts in 2017.
The following October, he had patellofemoral ligament reconstruction surgery in the same knee. He was still recovering in spring of 2018 and began the year on the disabled list. He also rolled his right ankle mid-season and made just 23 starts.
“There’s some history there that we want to make sure that we don’t go there again,” Roenicke said.
The Red Sox feel confident enough that they’ve yet to put him through any tests.
Chris Mazza will start today in Rodriguez’s place.
“The more I play the more I’ll learn,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve had a lot of injuries and I know how my body is now and how to deal with it. That’s the way I feel right now.”
The Red Sox don’t have the starting pitching depth to endure any significant loss of time from any of their top-three starters.
With Price gone, Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi and Rodriguez will lead a staff that only includes one other proven starter, Martin Perez, and has no fifth starter and is lacking in quality depth options.
In both 2018 and 2019, the Red Sox had two pitchers make 30 starts and two others make at least 20. The difference is the ’18 squad had depth.
The ‘18 squad had Brian Johnson and Hector Velazquez. Each were fresh and ready to contribute in a swing-role, a job that rarely allows a pitcher to have success in back-to-back years given the demanding nature of the responsibilities.
Both struggled the following season. And both are back this spring.
“We’ve got some work to do,” Sale said. “We’ve got some guys in here that can fill that void. We have a job to do and we’re going to do it.”
Asked how important Eovaldi was to this year’s rotation, Sale’s answer spoke volumes.
“He’s huge; we saw the void he left last year,” Sale said. “We’re aware of that. We know what we bring to the table and what we mean to this team and this rotation. We just have to do our job. We have to be out there. That’s more than half the battle is taking the ball.
“You can have a 2.50 ERA but it’s over 110 innings, it’s not doing anybody any good. We’ve got to cover some ground, make our starts and pitch effectively. We know that. You guys know that. Anybody with a brain in their head who knows anything about baseball knows that.”