The Boston Red Sox opened up the 2023 season Thursday without an offseason infield acquisition available to take the field.
Adalberto Mondesi, who the Red Sox acquired from the Kansas City Royals in January, is set to begin the new campaign on the 60-day injured list, still recovering from a torn ACL he suffered last April.
With Boston in no rush to speed up the process, and Mondesi on pace to return in late May, manager Alex Cora provided a brief update on the 27-year-old.
"We feel good with where he is at," Cora told reporters Thursday, according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive. "He has made some progress. Hopefully, we can get there. We want this guy to be the explosive guy that he was a few years ago. If he's 80%, 85% he's still a good player but not the one that is explosive playing defense and running the bases."
Mondesi's health status doesn't come as news to the Red Sox. It did, however, give teammate Rapiel Tapia a big league roster spot on Opening Day, beating out Jaren Duran for a reserve outfielder role.
Cora emphasized that Mondei's latest injured list placement doesn't represent a greater setback in place.
"No setbacks but he didn't take a leap forward in our last testing," Cora said. "He's still off but it feels like this is the right move just to make sure everything goes well."
Mondesi hasn't made it through a full season since 2019 when he played 102 games with the Royals. He slashed .140/.204/.140 over the course of 50 at-bats in 15 games last season.
