Xander Bogaerts has missed some time this spring due to some shoulder soreness. Tomorrow, he will make his first spring appearance as a designated hitter, as he’s scheduled to get two plate appearances.
Bogaerts was complaining about shoulder soreness early in camp, and the Red Sox decided to just shut him down. The shortstop also had an MRI that revealed “nothing concerning” Chaim Bloom told Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald a little over a week ago.
“I think I will be ready by Opening Day barring any other weird injury that might come up or something,” Bogaerts said.
“You never know. But as of now, yeah, I’ll be ready for Opening Day. My shoulder feels, I think pretty close to 100 percent and it’s just trying to get that strength back in it and just strength, mobility and making sure that this doesn’t happen again. It’s been a great rehab so far. The training staff, they’ve been getting me back in good shape.”
Bogaerts, 28, is coming off of a very solid 2020. Playing 50 games while hitting .300, with an OPS of .866 and also hitting 11 home runs. 2019, the year prior, he had a career year. Where he finished 5th in AL MVP voting with 33 home runs, a batting average of .309 and an OPS of .939.
With the departure of Jackie Bradley Jr, Xander Bogaerts is the only member of the 2021 Red Sox that was a part of the 2013 Red Sox, where they won the World Series. He’s also a part of a select few that are currently on the roster that were a part of the World Series winning team in 2018.
“We’ve just got to be patient. We’ve got plenty of days. We got, what, 30 more days? As of now, we do feel he should be ready for Opening Day.” Red Sox Manager Cora said a little over a week ago.
“He rushed himself with his throwing program during the off-season. With everything that’s going on with the virus, there were a few things he wasn’t able to do in Aruba because of lockdowns or whatever they had going on down there, for the right reasons. It wasn’t a regular off-season on that end. He was able to hit and all that but his throwing program wasn’t perfect. He rushed himself, he was sore for a few days. We shut him down.”