Multiple Big League Contributors Set to Begin Rehab Assignments This Week

[Alex Mayes]

In what could be a huge boon to the Red Sox as they look to bounce back from dropping their last seven of eight games, Roman Anthony, Trevor Story, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa are all set to begin rehab assignments throughout various levels of the organization.

First, Story has already reported to Worcester and will start his 20-day clock ticking on Sunday. It will be curious to see if he immediately slides into his usual shortstop position with the quick-rising Franklin Arias manning the position already for the WooSox, or if Story spends some time playing second base. 

Anthony will report to the Portland Sea Dogs on Tuesday straight from Fort Myers, where he’s been hitting off a high-velocity Trajekt machine to get his timing down. He will also have the typical 20-day ramp-up period before he has to be recalled to the 26-man roster. It’s unclear how much of that window he will need, at least from an offensive standpoint, because he has been consistently taking outfield reps while his partially torn right ring finger tendon was healing.

Finally, Kiner-Falefa has also already reported to Worcester but will be the last to start his rehab assignment on Wednesday. He’s rehabbing a left forearm stress reaction that came from him swinging the bat too hard as he started heating up earlier this season. 

The more difficult part of each one of these guys getting closer to rejoining the Red Sox is how interim manager Chad Tracy will shuffle the lineups on a daily basis. There are a number of guys who have been seeing regular playing time who will either head to the bench in a backup role or could get the call from Craig Breslow that they are headed back to Worcester until rosters expand next month. 

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[moonslav59]

I'm not excited about a Story return, despite his 2025 numbers.

IKF was heating up before his injury, but Monasterio, Seagler and Sogard are doing fine.

Anthony for Duran could be a major boost, even if he just hits .725.

[Alex Mayes]

6 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I'm not excited about a Story return, despite his 2025 numbers.

IKF was heating up before his injury, but Monasterio, Seagler and Sogard are doing fine.

Anthony for Duran could be a major boost, even if he just hits .725.

Right there with you about Story. Could be the rare subtraction by addition situation, haha. 
 

I was hoping Anthony would mean Duran to the bench but that all hinges on Masa’s potential hamstring injury now. 

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, Alex Mayes said:

Right there with you about Story. Could be the rare subtraction by addition situation, haha. 
I was hoping Anthony would mean Duran to the bench but that all hinges on Masa’s potential hamstring injury now. 

Even if Masa is out, we could see Anthony/White in LF and Romy/Anthony at DH.

Or, Mead at DH.

Or, Monasterio at DH.

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

IKF was heating up before his injury,

IKF might not be talented enough to replicate what he was doing before his injury.  He did a great job for a while.

[mvp 78]

Rehab players generally don’t come back like a house on fire. Having a bunch of guys returning at once isn’t ideal IMO! 

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Rehab players generally don’t come back like a house on fire. Having a bunch of guys returning at once isn’t ideal IMO! 

Better than not returning.  Hopefully the plan is to have our full team ready for the playoffs, though not taking anything for granted.

[Old Red]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Rehab players generally don’t come back like a house on fire. Having a bunch of guys returning at once isn’t ideal IMO! 

Agree. Especially when they don’t leave them down long enough to get enough AB to get some timing back. Hello NOmy, and the Rust Man.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Rehab players generally don’t come back like a house on fire. Having a bunch of guys returning at once isn’t ideal IMO! 

Maybe I missed a few ABs, but has anyone seen Rutschman barrel a single pitch yet? Even on a foul? It looks like he's pulling off with every swing, like he doesn't want to make contact because it may hurt...

And I don't care who returns, but DO NOT BENCH MONASTERIO. Andruw has 12 doubles in the past six weeks; that's one more in that span than the AL doubles leader, Rafaela, who is now back to hacking. at every. single. pitch.

The point is, the Red Sox just don't have that many good hitters, and have no choice but to ride anyone who is hot while they're hot. Or they're not.

[moonslav59]

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Rehab players generally don’t come back like a house on fire. Having a bunch of guys returning at once isn’t ideal IMO! 

That's how I see it and saw it at the deadline. We should not have made any trade decisions based on expecting anything from Crochet, Anthony, IKF and others on the 60 Day IL.

Maybe Brez did just that, but we look short on a SP'er, a RP'er and a DH/LF'er. One more from these 3 slots might have been all the extra help we needed.

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, Old Red said:

Agree. Especially when they don’t leave them down long enough to get enough AB to get some timing back. Hello NOmy, and the Rust Man.

To me, these guys are more "suspect" than Arias is now and Tolle & Bennett were in April.

[JoeBrady]

51 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

We should not have made any trade decisions based on expecting anything from Crochet, Anthony, IKF and others on the 60 Day IL.

I see no reason to ignore the advice of doctors.  If the doctors said that Anthony, IKF and Story would be back by September, then you can't trade for anyone that has to be DFAd upon their return.

[moonslav59]

2 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

I see no reason to ignore the advice of doctors.  If the doctors said that Anthony, IKF and Story would be back by September, then you can't trade for anyone that has to be DFAd upon their return.

There are 2 added roster spots on SEPT 1st, so that all but negates the 26 man roster issues and likely means no need to DFA anyone.

Also, these players have options remaining and could be sent down to add any of these three to four possible returnees.

For Anthony: Duran

For Story & IKF: Gasper, Sogard & Seigler

For Crochet: Burgos & Gamboa

We could have added a SP'er and had no roster crunch.

We did add a middle infielder who got hurt day one, so a second one added made little sense, but we could have handled one.

The LF/DH slot is a little more problematic, and we did add White at the deadline and Jones a while before. Both have no options, but had we added a more quality LF/OF'er we could have not added White. I'm not sure DFA'ing Jones would end the world, but my choice would be to demote Duran to AAA, anyway. That's not happening, so that slot was tricky once we added White.