BOSTON — The Red Sox might find themselves with more players on their bench in the near future.
Mookie Betts’ exit Friday against Minnesota certainly was a blow to Boston, but as of right now, it doesn’t appear the right fielder will miss much time with his knee injury. Betts wasn’t available for Saturday’s game against the Twins and said he first felt the pain after nabbing Brian Dozier trying to advance to second in the fourth inning Friday.
Betts said he was feeling better, though.
“I just felt I couldn’t run full speed, so I just didn’t want to make anything worse, so I just went ahead and was precautionary about it and trying to get it before anything major happens,” Betts said before Saturday’s game, later adding: “I feel pretty good now. We’re going to, like I said, do some treatment on it and make sure everything is good and hopefully get back out there.”
So far, Betts’ “treatment” has been limited to ice on his knee, and Red Sox manager John Farrell doesn’t seem to believe his All-Star right fielder will be out for long.
“He’s still day to day,” Farrell said Saturday. “He did go through an MRI. Structurally, everything is sound. There’s no cartilage issues. There’s some slight swelling that’s in the area, and we’ve got to work to get that out of there. So day to day is the status. It may take a couple (days) for him before he’s back to us, but everything points to this being a short-term situation.”
As for the guys on Boston’s disabled list, catcher/outfielder Blake Swihart was back to doing running drills on the field before Saturday’s game after he felt some pain in his ankle earlier in the week. Chris Young was hitting for the first time Saturday, and Farrell said the outfielder will move to running drills on the field after running on the treadmill over the past few days.
But the best prognosis is for closer Craig Kimbrel, who had surgery to repair a tear in his meniscus July 11.
“(Kimbrel) feels very good,” Farrell said. “If he was making the ultimate decision medically, he probably would say, ‘Give me the ball tonight.’ That’s how good he feels. That’s encouraging. But, still, we’ve got to get through the proper steps to get him there.”
Farrell said Kimbrel hopefully will get in two 20-pitch bullpens before the Red Sox head to the West Coast and then would have at least one rehab outing.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
