Jarren Duran will have to wait another day to make his Boston Red Sox debut as Thursday’s game against the New York Yankees was postponed amid positive COVID-19 tests from New York.
But perhaps the schedule adjustment will give Duran some time to come to terms with his latest promotion. After all, the outfielder, who was called up from Triple-A Worcester on Wednesday, hadn’t fully comprehended the roster move.
“I still don’t think it’s hit me yet,” Duran said during a Zoom call before Thursday’s postponement. “Everybody keeps telling me ‘You seem a little too calm for being called up.’ I still feel it hasn’t hit me yet. Probably not until I see the Yankees across the way from us.”
The news of his impending arrival broke Wednesday, and Duran pretty much confirmed the report when he shared a congratulatory Instagram post from his girlfriend, Kylie Granno. Fans went wild on Twitter in the lead-up to his major-league debut.
But all of that was secondary for the star, who said the first person he called after he received the news was his father, Octavio Duran.
“The guy’s pushed me since I was little and he got me into baseball, so it only felt right to call him first,” Duran said.
His father was also a crucial piece of his offseason development amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A self-proclaimed “gym rat,” Octavio Duran would lift weights with his rising star of a son when Jarren came home to California following the cancellation of the minor league season, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe.
Duran was slotted to start in center field and bat seventh against the Yankees on Thursday. It remains to be seen if the Red Sox will take a similar approach if Friday’s game against New York continues as scheduled.
