*All stats accurate through April 11*
The Adam Duvall wrist injury, a left distal radius fracture, is a significant blow to this Red Sox lineup. Duvall, not even on the Sox’s radar before Trevor Story injured his elbow, was/is supposed to be one of Boston’s few sources of big-time power. Now, they’ll be without it for quite a while.
Duvall, who sustained the wrist injury in the ninth inning of April 9th’s 4-1 Red Sox win over the Detroit Tigers attempting a diving catch, won’t need surgery. Thankfully, he’ll be back at some point this season.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said this about Adam Duvall’s wrist injury, “It’s interesting because a few weeks ago not too many people thought [this injury] would be a blow, but obviously the guy is a good player,” said Cora. “We knew when we signed him he was going to be a good defender and he was going to put up good at-bats. He worked so hard on a few things with [hitting coach] Pete [Fatse] to drive the ball to left field. And now it’s a big blow.”
Let’s be honest for a minute. This lineup was going to fall back down to earth at some point, and so was Duvall. But there was something more to this lineup than most initially thought. We’re back to questioning whether this offense can score enough without Duvall. I think they can with their new contact/on-base approach. It will be a lot tougher for the Red Sox to score runs now; however, with the rotation only improving and the bullpen being solid all year, Boston should be able to at least tread water (probably do better than that).
Defensively, we will see more lineups/alignments dictated by matchups and a ton of mixing and matching, even in-game.
The Red Sox still have the talent to score enough runs to win games. The season isn’t over two weeks into the 2023 season because of one injury to a player who wasn’t even in the Red Sox’s original plans.
Hopefully, the fight we’ve seen from the offense extends to Adam Duvall’s wrist injury and guys step up.
Red Sox Can Withstand Adam Duvall Wrist Injury
Here’s a quick recap of the events that brought the 34-year-old outfielder to Boston.
Xander Bogaerts signs a ridiculous contract with the Padres, then, just a few weeks later, Story injures his elbow during offseason conditioning. Instead of trading for Padres infielder Ha-Seong Kim for instance, Chaim Bloom and the Sox front office moved Enrique Hernandez to shortstop, traded for oft-injured (still injured) Adalberto Mondesi, and signed Duvall to a one-year, $7 million contract. For depth, the Sox re-signed Yu Chang and turned Bobby Dalbec into a utility player.
Boston has David Hamilton and Enmanuel Valdez on the 40-man roster but doesn’t seem inclined to call up either anytime soon.
All this has left the Red Sox infield depth extremely thin.
As a result, Cora mentioned there’d be a lot of mixing and matching.
Chang will get more time, particularly at shortstop, Dalbec too. Dalbec could see time in the outfield too.
Refsnyder will play a lot during this lefty-heavy stretch the Sox are currently in. Kike will play center field when needed and move around quite a bit, even in-game. Raimel Tapia will see some time against right-handers.
Cora also hinted Connor Wong might get time at other positions.
Bobby D was recalled over Duran due to the aforementioned lefty-heavy stretch. It wouldn’t surprise anyone to see Duran get his presumably final MLB chance when this stretch ends.
And with the rotation only improving (3.60 ERA since April 5) and a good bullpen (3.09 ERA/3.62 FIP), this Red Sox pitching staff, when fully healthy — which they almost are — should absolutely be good enough with even an average offense.
(I know I’ve written numerous times how the pitching was the question mark of this team. But things change when games start.)
There’s enough talent on this Red Sox team to handle their business as Adam Duvall recovers from his wrist injury. Some guys have to step up; others need to get going.
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