Schwarber willing to try playing first base

For almost all of July, slugger Kyle Schwarber’s mind had been fixed on working his way back from a hamstring injury that had kept him out of the Washington Nationals lineup since July 3. But when he got the phone call Thursday that the Nationals had agreed to trade him to the Red Sox for minor league righthander Aldo Ramirez, he had to immediately flip the switch.

He was no longer biding time with a team wallowing in fourth place in the NL East. Instead, he walked into the visitor’s clubhouse Saturday at Tropicana Field and joined a first-place Sox team that was loading up at the deadline to make a playoff push while at the same time trying to hold off the Tampa Bay Rays who were only a half-game back in the AL East.

“It was definitely a whirlwind there,” Schwarber said. “Getting a call late that night, you’re trying to scramble and make sure that you get everything in order to get to Tampa. When you’re walking into the ballpark and you do all the protocol things and pass that, you get excited when you’re going to walk into a new clubhouse full of a bunch of new guys.”

Five years removed from winning the World Series with the Chicago Cubs in 2016, Schwarber was just as rejuvenated by coming to a contender.

“It’s a nice feeling when you’re walking into a really good situation and knowing that you’re going to be able to come in and help a team push to a goal to go out there hopefully postseason and beyond,” Schwarber said.

The Sox already have plans for Schwarber — mostly to play him in the outfield, but also to give him looks at first base — and Schwarber

doesn’t expect his hamstring recovery to take much longer. He said he was able to get back to hitting a week after the injury and has been taking batting practice for three weeks to keep his swing intact.

“It’s not going to be too long,” Schwarber said. “I’ll probably go out on a rehab here maybe pretty soon and then see how that goes. Could be back before you know it. So trust me, I’m itching to get back out. It’s been too long, and I’m ready to get back out there and play baseball again and play some winning baseball.”

Robles, Davis added to active roster: Newly acquired relievers Hansel Robles and Austin Davis were added to the active 26-man roster. Manager Alex Cora pictured Robles playing a role similar to Hirokazu Sawamura, who has been on the disabled list since July 23 (retroactive to July 20) with right triceps inflammation.