REPOST: Red Sox hero set for retirement due to injury factor
Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, including Ian Browne of MLB.com, following Saturday’s win over the Tigers that second baseman Vaughn Grissom will need to be placed on the 10-day injured list due to what he termed a “mild” hamstring strain. Grissom exited the game after pulling up while running out a groundout earlier in the game, leading to catcher Connor Wong replacing Grissom at the keystone.
According to Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic, Cora indicated to reporters that Wong’s surprise appearance at second base was due to utility infielder Romy Gonzalez not being available, but he did not specify what was ailing Gonzalez or if he would be available Sunday afternoon.
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The news about Grissom constitutes another brutal injury blow for a Red Sox club that has struggled to stay healthy this year, particularly on the positional side. Grissom himself has appeared in just 23 games this season after being sidelined into May by a hamstring strain during spring training. Fortunately, as noted by Browne, that strain impacted his left hamstring, while Saturday’s injury was a right hamstring strain. That Grissom’s injury is a new one should allow him to return to action more quickly than if he had re-injured the same hamstring as before, but he’ll nonetheless miss at least the next 10 days without a clear timetable for his return to action.
When he’s been healthy enough to take the field, the start to Grissom’s Red Sox tenure has been a difficult one. He’s hit just .159/.209/.163 in 86 trips to the plate for Boston so far this season. That’s a particularly difficult pill to swallow for Red Sox fans given the fact that veteran southpaw Chris Sale, who the club swapped to Atlanta in order to acquire Grissom, has dominated to a 2.12 ERA and NL-best 2.11 FIP in his first 10 starts with the club, helping to anchor the club’s rotation alongside Max Fried in the absence of ace Spencer Strider.
While Grissom’s production to this point won’t exactly be difficult for the Red Sox to replace, his absence will only serve to further compound the club’s other positional injuries. Trevor Story, Triston Casas, Tyler O’Neill and Masataka Yoshida are all already on the injured list, with Story out for the season and Casas also facing a lengthy absence. Fortunately, the club’s situation is not without silver linings. Per MassLive’s Christopher Smith, Cora said that O’Neill’s ailing knee has responded well to a cortisone shot and the club figures to be without the outfielder for only the 10-day minimum, a timeline that should allow him to return to action early next week.
Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe relayed similarly optimistic news regarding Yoshida, who told reporters that he’s no longer feeling any negative effects from the thumb injury that sidelined him last month. That won’t help the Red Sox in the short term, as Yoshida will still need to build up after a month of time rehabbing the injury before he can return to the big league club, but it’s still an encouraging sign for a team that figures to be without Grissom for at least a couple of weeks.
Both Yoshida and O’Neill were hitting at an above-average clip overall at the time of their injuries, and if healthy, they should be able to step into the club’s outfield mix as key pieces alongside Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu.
The impending return of O’Neill, in particular, should be a relief for the Red Sox as it can provide the club with the opportunity to use versatile rookie Ceddanne Rafaela, who has mainly played center field for the club this year, on the infield dirt while Grissom is unavailable. In the meantime, the club figures to turn to Enmanuel Valdez and David Hamilton up the middle, with Gonzalez also a potential contributor at the keystone should he return to action in the coming days.
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