The slow drip of bad Romy Gonzalez news has reached its inevitable conclusion, as Gonzalez just underwent surgery to repair a tear in his left labrum. Believe it or not, this is not the worst case scenario. He’ll go on the 60-day IL and then likely need a lengthy rehab period, but he should be back sometime in mid-summer. (Tim Healey, Boston Globe)
Taking Romy’s spot on the roster will be lefty reliever Danny Coulombe, whom we told you about yesterday. It actually sounds like the Sox and Coulombe first
approached each other about a deal at the beginning of the offseason, so Coulombe had a relatively stress-free winter watching his kids play soccer and jogging around his Dallas-area neighborhood in his cleats. (CJ Haddad, MLB.com)
Missing most of Spring Training meant that Coulombe missed a little bit of history, as Braiden Ward broke the record for most steals in one spring training, and then went all Ricky Henderson to celebrate. (Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic)
Despite making history, Braiden Ward remains a big long shot to make the opening day roster. Connelly Early, on the other hand, entered Spring Training legimately hoping to win a spot in the rotation. But while MLB’s service time rules are making that look unlikely right now, he’s trying not to let it affect him. (Christopher Smith, MLB.com)
Early’s fellow rookie fireballer, Payton Tolle, was always less likely to make the big league team out of camp. And he knows exactly why that is and what he needs to work on:
Marcelo Mayer is also competing for a roster spot — at least, that’s what Alex Cora is saying publicly. Mayer has had an up-and-down week amidst an up-and-down spring. And while Cora is pleased that he had two hits in yesterday’s game, he still had some criticism for Mayer’s defense on an attempted double-play. (Christopher Smith, MassLive)
If Mayer needs any more defensive tutelage, he can always look to shortstop Trevor Story. Story and ace Garrett Crochet are the two guys Alex Cora is looking at to be clubhouse leaders this season. (Kaley Brown, Boston.com)
