Rodriguez, Taylor cleared to rejoin
Lefthanders allowed back with team after positive COVD-19 tests
BOSTON — Lefthanders Eduardo Rodriguez and Josh Taylor returned to Red Sox camp on Saturday after being cleared by Major League Baseball following positive tests for COVID-19.
They played catch at Fenway Park, the first step toward getting ready for the regular season.
“Try to slowly get them back in to where they need to be and to really evaluate where they are,” manager Ron Roenicke said.
Rodriguez was to be the Opening Day starter before he tested positive earlier this month in Florida. Taylor tested positive after arriving in Boston and spent two weeks quarantined at a hotel.
Rodriguez continued throwing while waiting to be cleared. But he would have to face hitters at last once in game conditions before getting into a regular-season game.
So Roenicke made it official that Nate Eovaldi would face the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night at Fenway Park in the first game.
“I talked to Nate [Friday], so we’ll do that,” Roenicke said. “It’s not fair to Eddie to do that to him. I really couldn’t do that. We’ll evaluate him. I don’t know where he folds in. It’s not going to be for the first week, I wouldn’t think.
“We’ll see where he is and be fair to everybody and make sure we’re doing this the right way.”
Rodriguez was 19-6 with a 3.81 earned run average in 34 starts last season. His return to the rotation would be a significant boost.
The plan is for Rodriguez to throw at least two long bullpen sessions. He would then face hitters.
“It doesn’t mean he has to get his pitch count up to 85 or anything,” Roenicke said. “If he’s feeling good and we think we can [build him up] in season, maybe he throws four innings and we think his four innings are going to be better than somebody else’s, we can fold him in.
“There’s a lot to think about. How he does in this next week will tell us an awful lot.”
The Opening Day assignment is Eovaldi’s first. He was 2-1 with a 5.99 ERA last season and made only 12 starts among his 23 appearances because of elbow surgery.
Taylor will need time to regain arm strength following his quarantine. But as a reliever his preparation would be for one inning at a time and should progress quickly.
“I’m a little more concern about him because he was stuck in that hotel room and not throwing at all,” Roenicke said. “Other than maybe throwing into a pillow or mattress or whatever he was doing. We really need to keep our eyes on him and make sure that he’s ready when he’s activated.”
Taylor appeared in 52 games as a rookie last season. He had a 3.04 ERA and averaged 11.8 strikeouts per nine innings.
Another lefty reliever, Darwinzon Hernandez, is waiting for clearance.
Bard back in big-leagues:
Daniel Bard never ran from the mental hiccups that derailed a promising pitching career with the Red Sox.
Through a half-dozen comeback attempts since his last appearance in the big leagues in 2013, Bard couldn’t rediscover his control and finally settled into a job last year as a player mentor and mental skills coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
In addition to offering advice or just a shoulder to players, he would shag fly balls and play some catch during warm-ups. Soon, players began telling him his throws were pretty nasty and wondered why he wasn’t on a big league mound himself.
Intrigued, Bard got back on a mound in January in Charlotte, N.C.
“I was throwing mid-90s, throwing strikes with ease, and I hadn’t done that in eight years,” Bard said. “So, that was when I was like, ‘OK, I think I’m going to give this serious consideration.’ ”
The Rockies gave him one last shot this year and he made the most of it, regaining not just his control but his confidence with a stellar spring and strong summer when he returned home to Greenville, S.C., during the coronavirus pandemic.
Rockies manager Bud Black informed Bard, 34, on Friday that he’d made the roster.