BOSTON --- The next two days could be critical regarding the eventual return of Red Sox right-handers Heath Hembree and Steven Wright.
Both relievers are currently on the injured list, and both are experiencing right elbow issues. Hembree had a platelet-rich plasma injection early Tuesday and Wright will meet with noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews in Florida on Wednesday.
Hembree’s injection was on the outside of the elbow and meant to combat inflammation. [...]
BOSTON --- The next two days could be critical regarding the eventual return of Red Sox right-handers Heath Hembree and Steven Wright.
Both relievers are currently on the injured list, and both are experiencing right elbow issues. Hembree had a platelet-rich plasma injection early Tuesday and Wright will meet with noted orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews in Florida on Wednesday.
Hembree’s injection was on the outside of the elbow and meant to combat inflammation. He’s undergone an MRI over the last week, and that examination revealed no ligament or structural damage. Boston still expects Hembree to pitch again at some point this season.
“It’s not his ligament,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “It’s not the reddest of red flags.”
It’s the second stint on the IL this season for Hembree, and he pitched to a 9.00 earned-run average after his July 5 return. Hembree’s 20 appearances before being sidelined included a 0.52 ERA, as the 30-year-old threw the ball as well as he has at any point in his career.
“I would throw one game, and then the next morning it was a little bit crankier than the day before,” Hembree said Friday in New York. “It was just something I was trying to grind through, and it came to the point where it wasn’t really worth it anymore.”
Wright hasn’t pitched in a game since July 13 against the Dodgers when he was hit on the right foot by a Max Muncy comebacker. The knuckleballer was rehabbing at Boston’s spring training home in Fort Myers when he reported elbow soreness while playing catch this week. Wright turns 35 later this month.
“Throughout the season his knee was good, but his arm – he felt like he could pitch, but he wasn’t at his best,” Cora said. “He played catch the other day. He didn’t feel too comfortable with it.”
Wright has made just 31 appearances over the last three seasons for the Red Sox, as he and Dustin Pedroia both underwent the same cartilage restoration procedure on their left knees prior to the 2018 campaign. Wright pitched to a 2.68 ERA in 20 appearances last year but has turned in an 8.53 ERA in six appearances this year. Wright has also been forced to sit through a pair of suspensions – 15 games last year for a domestic assault arrest, 80 games this year after he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.
“You almost have to take a step back and be like, ‘I’ve really got to cherish the times I do have in the clubhouse,’” Wright said in late June. “It’s that quickly it can be taken away.”
bkoch@providencejournal.com
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