The Boston Red Sox are going to be thin in the bullpen and at designated hitter over the next few weeks.
Both Masataka Yoshida and Justin Slaten are banged up right now and Alex Speier of The Boston Globereported on Sunday morning that they are being placed on the Injured List ahead of the club’s series finale against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“The Red Sox are placing Masataka Yoshida and Justin Slaten on the injured list. They’re recalling Mickey Gasper and Raymond Burgos from Triple-A,” Speier wrote. “Yoshida, of course, injured his hamstring yesterday. Slaten has been dealing with right elbow soreness. He last pitched on 8/12. The addition of Erik Miller at the deadline was a big one for the Sox, who are without Slaten and Whitlock for now.”
Of the two, it was known that Yoshida was hurting. He left the game in the third inning on Saturday. After the contest, he shared that the last time he suffered a hamstring injury, it cost him about a month of action.
When Yoshida exited, it certainly seemed like he was trending towards an Injured List stint. But there was still some hope, although unlikely. Unfortunately for Boston, it’s going to be missing the 33-year-old for at least a few weeks. The timing isn’t great. He has been one of Boston’s best hitters throughout the month of August. Over his last 12 games, Yoshida has slashed .326/.380/.512 with an .892 OPS, one home run, eight RBIs and five doubles.
On the Slaten front, this wasn’t as expected as the Yoshida news. Slaten last pitched on Aug. 12 against the Toronto Blue Jays and he tossed a scoreless inning. After struggling early on this season, Slaten was really starting to find his groove. He has a 1.59 ERA over his last 13 outings in 11 1/3 innings of work.
With Garrett Whitlock already on the Injured List, losing another high-leverage arm arguably is a worst-case scenario for Boston right now.
Fortunately, Boston has a 5 1/2-game lead in the American League Wild Card standings over the Texas Rangers, who have the No. 3 Wild Card spot. Boston is missing a few key cogs right now and will have to find a way through. On the bright side, shortstop Trevor Story is scheduled to begin a minor league rehab assignment on Sunday and Roman Anthony is expected to do the same on Tuesday.
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