Adley Rutschman, the Boston Red Sox All-Star catcher, has been sidelined for a second straight day, sitting out Wednesday’s game against the Miami Marlins after missing Tuesday’s with a sore elbow. You gotta be kidding me, right? An All-Star catcher, out with a *sore elbow*? That’s the kind of news that just makes your stomach drop when you’re counting on your best guys every single night.
“Trending in the Right Direction” or Just Blowing Smoke?
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy tried to spin it before Wednesday’s contest, saying Rutschman is “trending in the right direction.” But hold up, he also admitted Rutschman isn’t “100 percent.” Tracy went on, “if he’s not like, ‘Hey, I feel completely fully recovered,’ why would you do that? Use today plus the off day … to try to get completely on the other side of this thing and hopefully be able to turn him loose in New York.” He followed that with, “So hope we’re trending that way, but it just didn’t make a lot of sense to me today to try to risk putting him out there. So just let him be off today and we’ll reassess him after the off day.” Look, I get being cautious, but hearing “not 100 percent” when an All-Star is out? That’s never a good sign, no matter how much manager-speak you layer on top.
Boston’s Injury Track Record Is, Shall We Say, *Concerning*
Here’s where it gets even more concerning for Boston fans. We’ve seen this movie before, haven’t we? Tracy can say all he wants about “trending in the right direction,” but when an All-Star is sitting on the sidelines, it’s always a worry. What’s worse is that this season, it feels like the Red Sox have consistently downplayed injuries, only for them to turn out much worse than initially reported. Think about Roman Anthony. Remember Garrett Crochet? Those situations were supposedly not as bad as they turned out, and now you have Rutschman with a mystery elbow problem. It’s a pattern that just screams “red flag” and has to make you question what the real story is here.
The hope, in a “perfect world,” is that this All-Star backstop can actually take the field on Friday against the New York Yankees. “Hopefully, Rutschman is able to come back on Friday,” the source says. Hopefully? That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement of confidence, is it? This isn’t just a minor tweak. This is Adley Rutschman, an All-Star catcher, and his elbow. It’s something everyone needs to be watching really, really closely because with Boston’s history, “trending in the right direction” might just mean “we’ll tell you the bad news later.”
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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