PHILADELPHIA — Anyone who has watched Alex Bregman’s first seven games back in the Red Sox lineup can see clearly that he’s not 100%. In the eyes of the club, that’s the price that has to be paid for Bregman’s accelerated comeback from a quad injury.
Bregman, who has started six of Boston’s nine games since returning from a 43-game absence June 11, has clearly not looked like a fully healthy player while running the bases as of late. On grounders he hits, he has taken it easy, and the Red Sox aren’t pushing him to take extra bases, even in key situations. The best example came Monday, when Roman Anthony smoked a hard-hit double down the right field line and Bregman, running from first, pulled up at third as Nick Castellanos gathered the ball in the corner. At full strength, he would have scored easily. But with one out, the Red Sox played it safe (and were rewarded when Trevor Story drove in Bregman two pitches later).
Bregman said he returned five weeks earlier than originally expected — seven weeks after suffering the right quad strain despite originally being given a 12-week timetable — and to ensure that happened, the Red Sox laid out some strict ground rules. It doesn’t always look good, but the club feels Bregman looking slow on a play or two now is a better outcome than him aggravating the injury and missing more time.
“We’ll play it safe the whole time,” manager Alex Cora said Wednesday. “You’ve just got to be smart.”
Bregman, when at full strength, is a hard-nosed gamer who doesn’t take a play off. That’s why, on the night he returned nearly two weeks ago, he said that the cautious approach “sucks.” Helping matters, according to Cora, is that Bregman took a similar tack when he returned to the Astros after missing 58 games with a similar injury in 2021.
“He has done it before,” Cora said. “He did it whenever he had the injury with the Astros. He played that way for a while and he knows what it takes.”
The Red Sox brought Bregman back earlier than anticipated in an effort to bolster their lineup and stabilize the defense at third base. The 30-year-old is not a threat on the basepaths, as evidenced by his 23rd percentile ranking in sprint speed so far this year (and his 32nd percentile ranking over 145 games last year).
“First of all, he has never been a fast runner,” Cora said. “That’s the reality of it. I’m not staying he’s a station-to-station guy but he’s not a burner, so he understands when he has to go and when he needs to take it easy. We respect that and we’ll keep it like that.”
In a limited sample size, Bregman hasn’t looked fully comfortable at the plate, where he’s 6-for-26 (.231) with two extra-base hits, no walks, two strikeouts and a .615 OPS in seven games since returning. The Sox know there might be a readjustment period — as well as big moments like Bregman’s game-changing, three-run, pinch-hit homer in Chicago on Sunday.
Bregman is out of the lineup again Wednesday against the Phillies, but in an emergency situation, might be available off the bench again. The plan is for him to rest Thursday on the team’s off day, then be ready to resume everyday playing duties Friday when the Red Sox begin a three-game series against the Dodgers.
The team-imposed limits on running the bases, will continue though, according to Cora.
“He has been good,” Cora said. “Yesterday, I asked (head athletic trainer) Brandon (Henry) about today. He’s like, ‘We’ll stay with the plan.’ He won’t start today, or he won’t play, then he’ll be ready for Friday. I think from Friday on, he’ll be full-go.”
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