FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Red Sox brought in several intriguing arms to give them more depth on the mound heading into the 2010 season. A few of those imports have hit an early snag.
Jason Bergmann, a 29-year-old right-hander, was shut down on the first day of workouts after experiencing some discomfort in his shoulder. Manager Terry Francona called the issue a "hindrance"for Bergmann.
In addition, right-handers Brandon Duckworth and Tony Pena, who, like Bergmann, were signed to free agent deals this offseason, had some weakness in their shoulders that needs to be addressed.
"[They] went through the testing and came up a little bit on the weaker side in terms of strength," Francona said of Duckworth and Pena. "We’re going to get some further testing on them, just so that when we allow them to throw off the mound the risk isn’t greater than we want it to be.
"There’s no alarm bells or red flags, but to allow them to go through, when they’re on the lower end of the spectrum, we want to do a little further testing just to make sure there’s not something there that shouldn’t be there."
Bergmann was 12-24 with a 5.04 ERA in six seasons in Washington. Duckworth, who broke in with Philadelphia in 2001, hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2008, when he was with Kansas City. Pena, the son of former Red Sox catcher of the same name, is a converted shortstop who went 3-2 with a 2.53 ERA in 29 games out of the bullpen at Triple-A Richmond last year.
