Chris Martin was retroactively positioned on the 15-day injured record on July 4, and the Pink Sox have been hopeful that he may very well be activated this coming Friday on his first day of eligibility. Nonetheless, Sox supervisor Alex Cora advised reporters (together with Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe) that Martin is quickly shut down because the reliever “didn’t really feel nice” after a sport of catch on Friday.
Cora mentioned that Martin isn’t scheduled to endure an MRI, and total he’s “not involved” over the scenario, “but it surely’s going to take longer than we anticipated.” Martin has been sidelined with proper elbow irritation, and reasonably than proceed his throwing development, he’ll as a substitute take the All-Star break off earlier than heading to Boston whereas the Pink Sox begin the second half with a western street journey.
Martin’s numbers aren’t fairly as spectacular as they have been throughout his first season with the Pink Sox, however he has nonetheless been fairly strong with a 3.42 ERA over 26 1/3 innings, in addition to an above-average 27.9% strikeout price and a 1.9BB% that ranks amongst baseball’s greatest stroll charges. Martin had a minimal 15-day IL stint earlier this season resulting from anxiousness, along with this present elbow concern.
With Martin set to overlook extra time past Friday, the Sox at the moment are down two relievers with yesterday’s placement (retroactive to July 9) of right-hander Justin Slaten on the 15-day IL, additionally with irritation in his throwing elbow. Talking with MLB.com and different media about Slaten, Cora mentioned the reliever has “been grinding by way of it in all probability the final 15 days….It’s his first time pitching this a lot, and clearly we’ve obtained to watch out with him.” For now, the Pink Sox believes this may be only a 15-day break for Slaten, although as we simply noticed with Martin, it will depend on how Slaten’s elbow responds throughout his down time.
Slaten has made a superb accounting of himself in his first MLB season, with a 3.38 ERA and a set of excellent Statcast metrics over his first 42 2/3 innings as an enormous leaguer. A 3rd-round decide for the Rangers within the 2019 draft, Slaten was chosen away from Texas by the Mets throughout final December’s Rule 5 draft, however the Mets then dealt Slaten to the Pink Sox, and thus Boston has to maintain Slaten on its lively roster or injured record for the whole season or else supply him again to the Rangers.
Based mostly on the early outcomes, it seems just like the Pink Sox might have discovered a hidden gem with the 26-year-old righty. Slaten averages 96.3mph on his fastball, although his heater and his sweeper are secondary to a superb cutter that Slaten has thrown 39.2% of the time this season. Batters merely haven’t but figured him out, giving the Sox one other strong arm inside what has been an unspectacular however typically efficient bullpen. Slaten can be one other instance of how Boston’s revamped pitching improvement division and new pitching coach Andrew Bailey have rotated a employees that struggled in 2023.
This group might’ve probably been even stronger if Seth Lugo had been signed within the offseason, because the Sox have been among the many groups who pushed to signal the free agent righty. Lugo signed a three-year, $45MM take care of the Royals, and MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo writes that the Sox weren’t keen to go to 3 years for the veteran hurler, or match a $15MM common annual worth.
Lugo advised Cotillo that past the contract, the Royals stood out resulting from their relative proximity to Lugo’s house in Louisiana. Nonetheless, Lugo mentioned the Pink Sox “have been one of many final ones speaking to me earlier than we made the choice,” and it helped that he had a previous connection to Cora by way of Crew Puerto Rico through the 2017 World Baseball Basic.
Sarcastically, the Pink Sox dealt Lugo one among his worst outings of the season at present, as Lugo allowed 5 runs on 10 hits and a stroll over 5 innings in Kansas Metropolis’s 5-0 loss to Boston. Even with that tough efficiency now on his ledger, Lugo nonetheless has a 2.48 ERA over 20 begins and 127 innings this season, incomes the righty his first All-Star nod in his ninth MLB season.