Red Sox manager trying to stay positive

Ron Roenicke is miserable. Sort of.

"I have a lot of hobbies I do, but I’m starting to get tired of those hobbies," the Boston Red Sox interim manager said. "I want to get back at it and get back on the field again."

In normal years the season would be well underway and fans would be complaining about games finishing in 40 degree weather, how the Red Sox are going to find something that resembles a pitching staff and how they’re going to replace Mookie Betts. [...]

Ron Roenicke is miserable. Sort of.

"I have a lot of hobbies I do, but I’m starting to get tired of those hobbies," the Boston Red Sox interim manager said. "I want to get back at it and get back on the field again."

In normal years the season would be well underway and fans would be complaining about games finishing in 40 degree weather, how the Red Sox are going to find something that resembles a pitching staff and how they’re going to replace Mookie Betts.

So far, 2020 has been far from a normal year and with Major League Baseball — and all sports, for that matter — in a holding pattern, the hope that normalcy will return is what’s keeping long-time baseball guys like Roenicke going.

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"I’m just trying to have a positive outlook and looking forward to when we get back and train again and looking forward to some guys who were performing well in spring training and thinking about them having a great season," said Roenicke, who was speaking from his home in California. "That, I think, keeps us all a little saner in this time where we have to stay at home and not go out and do much."

Tuesday’s press conference — done through Zoom, with Roenicke using his wife’s account — wasn’t filled with much as far as Red Sox information goes. Pitching coach Dave Bush is worried about building the rotation and getting starters stretched out enough to throw through a season, so much so that he’s currently sitting on four different plans depending on when — and if — MLB returns.

Outfielder Alex Verdugo, acquired in the trade for Betts, is still in recovery, taking swings and doing some running. But the team hasn’t been able to give him a proper MRI to see if he’s fully recovered from a fracture in his back.

Collin McHugh, signed as a Band-Aid to a pitching staff that’s been brutalized by injury, wasn’t expected back for a while after an elbow injury last year so his progression is on point at home. The update on Dustin Pedroia is he’s living the Mr. Mom life and, as Roenicke put it, "going to the store and doing the shopping for the family" but not at a point where he’s ready to rejoin the team.

Roenicke said players are doing what they can to start the season. Not everyone has a batting cage like Mitch Moreland, who posted impressive pictures of his setup in a new barn on Instagram. Roenicke said batters are doing tee work and what they think is necessary to be ready to go.

Getting the pitchers ready is the bigger concern because not everyone has a throwing partner or somewhere to go. You can have your kid put balls on a tee while you take swings, but it’s probably not advisable to have a kid don the tools of ignorance to try to catch a 90-plus pitch with movement.

"The pitching is the biggest concern," Roenicke said. "I think because they got themselves in pretty good shape and pretty far along, I don’t think it’ll take as long to get back."

"We’re trying to make sure everyone is still throwing. It’s a little bit different for every player," Bush said. "The goal for most guys is to be throwing 4-5 days a week in some capacity so even the guys who are throwing into a net, if they’re able to stretch it out a little bit and put some intensity into it, they’re probably fine for right now. I’m hesitating to give them too strict of a throwing program because we don’t know when we’re going to restart."

That’s the frustrating part. Roenicke’s heard the same stories the average baseball fan has heard about possible solutions or possible start dates. If he knew more information, he didn’t divulge it to the media on Tuesday.

How realistic some of those plans are — like playing all the games in Arizona, for example — he’s not quite sure.

"The problem I see is we go back, right, and now one person tests positive. That’s huge. That concerns me probably more than anything," Roenicke said. "Yes we can go play in empty stadiums and have them televised and I’m fine with all that, but if we go through this whole thing and get everybody in shape and then we have one person on one team test positive, how do we continued on with the league? To me, that’s going to be the most difficult thing."

Roenicke put things in perspective because ultimately, the start of the MLB season isn’t life or death. He wants to stop the Zoom calls, stop the texts and get back in camp, but he wants to do it as safely as possible for him, his team and everyone else.

If that means a little less fun for him at home, he’ll manage.

"The part I’m able to handle OK is I look at what’s going on in the country with people that are getting sick and people that are dying and people that are losing jobs. That’s way more difficult than what I’m dealing with," Roenicke said. "This is going to go on a while so I don’t want to be in a mad mood every day. I have to look at things that when we get back at it again and how fun that’s going to be."

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