Eduardo Rodriguez has been dealing with a case of dead arm since spring training, and on Thursday, the Red Sox officially placed him on the injured list.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters earlier this week that he doesn’t yet anticipate the team will be without Rodriguez for an extended period. According to The Boston Globe, the hope is that he will be able to return next week. He’s scheduled to pitch a simulated game Friday at the team’s alternate site in Worcester.
“We’re not going to cut a few things just to have him,” Cora said. “He might say all the right things, but there’s other stuff he has to do to prove to us that he feels great. It’s not that we don’t trust him but we have to be very careful with him.”
Rodriguez has had a difficult stretch. The left-hander tested positive for COVID-19 prior to the team’s training camp, then registered multiple negative tests and was cleared to rejoin the team. As Rodriguez tried to work his way back, he was fatigued, which led to a myocarditis diagnosis.
Fortunately, the Red Sox were able to treat Rodriguez’s condition. His agent, Scott Pucino, told the Globe that he was encouraged by “the care that the Boston Red Sox had with the cardiologists, how confident they were that, hey, shut this down and things will be OK.”
Now Rodriguez is out again. “Dead arm” can refer to a variety of conditions. In his absence, the Red Sox will fill his slot with Tanner Houck, who is expected to start on Saturday.
Cora said Houck wasn’t “uncomfortable early on, but he was trying to do more.”
“Just watching him pitch the last [spring game] and him knowing the situation, you can tell he breathed,” Cora said. “He was in control, just throwing his sinker and four-seamer and slider. That was a good lineup, too. And there were some bad swings, but I think it was kind of like the comfort level.”
Rodriguez started 34 games in 2019 and finished 19-6 with an ERA of 3.81.
Get Boston.com’s browser alerts:
Enable breaking news notifications straight to your internet browser.
