Red Sox pitcher Alfredo Aceves‘ time with the club has been interesting, to say the least, and the latest occurrence of that ongoing saga took place this weekend as the team’s unofficial first half came to an end.
Aceves was outrighted to Triple-A Pawtucket following the team’s extra-innings loss to the Oakland Athletics on Sunday afternoon. In order for Aceves to be outrighted, he had to pass through waivers, which he did, with all 29 teams passing on a chance to claim him. This also means that Aceves is no longer on the Red Sox’ 40-man roster.
The often difficult to deal with right-hander last appeared in a game Tuesday against Seattle. He was brought in to replace Allen Webster, who had given up seven runs in 2 1/3 innings of work. It made sense that Aceves would have done some mop-up work given the circumstances, but he pitched the 2/3 of an inning to finish the frame and did not return for the fourth inning.
Red Sox manager John Farrell indicated that Aceves was feeling some pain in his “left side,” but the manager also said Aceves could have pitched through it. That’s something the pitcher disputed shortly thereafter.
“I can’t pitch,” Aceves told MassLive.com. “The next 15 [days]. Sixty. Who knows. Two weeks. Two months. It may be the end of the season for me. Because [Tuesday] I pull my oblique. I think I can be out for the season, yeah.”
Aceves went on to sound pretty emphatic of the fact that he won’t be able to take the ball for quite some time.
“I’m telling you, I’m not going to pitch,” he told MassLive. “I’m not going to pitch. I’m not going to do nothing ’til this goes away.”
Now that Aceves is off of the 40-man, he would have to be added back to the roster in order to be called back up to Boston. The odds of that happening are starting to appear pretty thin.
