Red Sox’s Alex Cora Provides Injury Update On Masataka Yoshida

Masataka Yoshida’s return would offer fortuitous timing for the Boston Red Sox.

A shoulder injury has sidelined Yoshida, and a lineup logjam seemed to block the 31-year-old’s path back to earning regular playing time. However, the Rafael Devers trade creates an opening at designated hitter.

Following Tuesday night’s loss to the Seattle Mariners, per MassLive’s Christopher Smith, Red Sox manager Alex Cora said the team planned to meet soon to “map out” a return schedule for Yoshida.

“There’s a chance he’ll go to Fort Myers, start getting more reps down there and then go on a rehab assignment hopefully soon,” Cora said. “But we haven’t met about it. But I think that probably is going to be on the table.”

Although Yoshida may need more time before he can throw in the outfield, Cora said they may try to “speed up the process” to bring him back exclusively as a DH.

“He can swing the bat,” Cora said. “Now it’s a matter of him getting at-bats and all that. But at the same time, respecting the rehab of the shoulder. So we’ll decide that sooner rather than later. And we’ll go from there.”

Yoshida has hit .285/.343/.433 in two seasons since leaving Japan for the Red Sox. He’s fared far better against right-handed pitchers (.810 OPS) than fellow lefties (.669 OPS), so Cora indicated that Yoshida could assume the larger end of a timeshare with the right-handed Rob Refsnyder.

“He’s a good hitter,” Cora said. “We’ve seen it the last few years when he’s healthy. It’s a great at-bat. He hits the ball hard. He takes his walks. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but kind of like a plan on how to use him. We can platoon. We can do all this stuff. Ref and Masa together, that’s a pretty good hitter. So we’re going to be OK.”

Yet another hitter could rejoin the Red Sox before Yoshida. Wilyer Abreu is currently rehabbing at Triple-A Worcester and could get activated this Friday to face Devers and the San Francisco Giants.

Adding another left-handed hitter to the fold could complicate matters for Yoshida. If Abreu regains his portion of platoon reps, any playing time for Yoshida may come at Roman Anthony’s expense.

Boston at least seems poised to have more options soon. Romy Gonzalez drew a rare start against a righty (Luis Castillo) at DH on Wednesday.