Alex Cora prefaced the answer by saying he didn’t want to “jump to conclusions.”
But the answer to whether he thought Alex Bregman is trending toward a stint on the injured list was still “yes.”
“I saw him this morning, he’s like, ‘It’s worse than I thought,’” the Red Sox manager said of his third baseman, who underwent an MRI on Saturday.
Bregman exited Friday afternoon’s game in the fifth inning with what the club initially announced as ‘right-quad tightness.’ After initially trying to stretch his line-drive single into a double, he hesitated on the base path and returned to first, where he immediately called for a trainer, then walked off the field and into the dugout tunnel. Postgame, Bregman told reporters that he felt the quad issue as he rounded first, and didn’t want to exacerbate it by attempting to push through.
Regardless of whether Bregman remains day-to-day or officially goes on the injured list, the Red Sox will be without their most consistent offensive contributor for an indeterminate amount of time, and must find ways to fill the hole at the hot corner.
“Roster flexibility and versatility comes into play,” Cora said. “Every day is going to be something different, probably. We’ll mix and match, and we’re going to maximize our roster, if (an IL stint) happens.”
Devers (back) at third?
Rafael Devers isn’t in the mix at present, despite being not only the team’s longest-tenured player – and therefore most Fenway-familiar – and most experienced at third (951 career regular-season games). Cora initially said “no” to his new designated hitter returning to the field, then backtracked moments later, saying, “We made a decision, and we’ll continue to talk. I’m not saying we’re gonna close the door and all that, but we feel very comfortable with Rafael Devers as DH.”
Devers entered Saturday hitting an astronomical .299/.415/.557 over 52 games (tied for the MLB lead), leading the majors with 47 RBI, and leading the American League with 39 walks. With two home runs on Friday he moved ahead of Rico Petrocelli for sole possession of 10th on the franchise’s all-time home-run list. Devers is one home run away from tying Jim Rice for most homers by a Red Sox player before turning 29, and his birthday isn’t until October.
“He’s dominating the strike zone,” Cora said. “He’s gone through stretches like that in his career and they’ve been really good, but this is the most consistent I’ve seen him.”
After a historically-high strikeout-filled start to the season, Devers is punching out at 23.8% clip, nearly a full point lower than last year, and 16.5% walk rate is in the 98th MLB percentile and is over 5% better than his previous career mark, and he’s hitting the ball harder than ever before: 59.3% hard-hit rate (99th MLB percentile) and 95.1 mph average exit velocity (98th percentile).
“Maybe we’re doing it right, maybe we’re doing it wrong, I don’t know,” Cora said. “I know that the guy is raking. He’s the best DH in the American League right now. If he keeps continuing to do this, he’s going to be in the All-Star Game as a DH, he’s gonna win a Silver Slugger as a DH.”
Mix-and-match
Beyond Devers, the pickings are slim. Abraham Toro leads the group with 161 career games at third. No one else has more than Romy Gonzalez’s 21, and with his IL stint taking significantly longer than expected, Cora said he’ll now need to go on a rehab assignment before being activated.
“I said that he can play third, I’m not saying he’s a possibility,” Cora clarified on Ceddanne Rafaela, “but in case of emergency we know he can play second, he can play short, he can play third, and if you give him a first-base mitt I bet he can do it, too.”
Nick Sogard will play his 10th career big-league game at third in the top of Saturday’s doubleheader with the visiting Baltimore Orioles.
Notably, Cora didn’t rule out bringing up top prospect Marcelo Mayer for his long-awaited debut.
“There’s a lot of guys in the conversation,” Cora said when asked about Mayer. “Roster construction comes into play. Guys in the minor leagues, you know, how they fit the roster and all that stuff, so there’s a lot of conversations.”
Mayer has very little third-base experience, though; a natural shortstop, he’s played 269 of his 286 career professional games at short, and just six total games at third. If the Red Sox were to finally call him up, it’s more likely they’d have him play shortstop or second base.
“We’ll be okay. I mean, obviously he’s a big part of our offense,” Cora said of Bregman, who’s slashed .299/.385/.553 with 59 hits (17 doubles, 11 HR), 32 runs and 35 RBI through 51 games. “We just gotta find ways to score runs in a different way, and we’re prepared for that.”
“We’ll probably mix-and-match a little more, be more aggressive in certain areas, pinch-hit and all that, and we gotta go to work,” the Sox skipper continued. “Nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. That’s the nature of the business.
“And if we feel that we are this good and we have a chance to play in October, then you have to overcome stuff like this. That we might lose one of our best players? Yeah, you know, it is what it is, right? We just got to continue to keep getting better, and play the game the right way, and hopefully we can continue to win games like this week.”
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