The Boston Red Sox are without one of the biggest pieces of their offense, but things appear to be trending in the right direction.
Star right fielder Mookie Betts has been ramping up his workouts and is expected to take batting practice on the field Thursday afternoon. Should that go well, Betts indicated he may benefit from a brief rehab stop in the minors to get his timing back down, manager Alex Cora told reporters before Wednesday’s game.
“Mookie just swung the bat,” Cora said, via MassLive. “Actually he was tracking pitches. He’ll take batting practice tomorrow and then we’ll decide where we go. But he’s feeling a lot better. There was no hesitation in the cage. So that was good.”
Betts is eligible to be activated off the 10-day disabled list Friday for his left abdominal strain.
Cora also had an update on injured second baseman Dustin Pedroia. It has been a bumpy road to recovery for the second baseman, who played just three games after being activated off the disabled list from offseason cartilage restoration surgery in his knee.
He went to visit his surgeon in New York earlier in the week, and all signs pointed to the ailment simply being some inflammation, not necessarily a larger issue.
“Talked to him earlier and, mentally, I believe he’s in a good place again,” Cora said, as transcribed by WBZ. “When they told him it has nothing to do with the surgery, it’s just inflammation, he feels better now.
“(Pedroia) just walked into the clubhouse and he was loud again so that’s good. He wasn’t as loud in Houston — he was actually worried,” Cora said on WEEI’s “Dale & Keefe” on Wednesday. “But now that we know what’s going on hopefully he can go out there and do something baseball-related, if not today then tomorrow. It seems like he’ll be with us sooner rather than later.”
While lacking players like Betts and Pedroia never is ideal, it sounds as though they are taking encouraging steps forward.
