BOSTON — The Red Sox moved setup man Justin Slaten to the 60-day injured list Saturday, but the move is much more about flexibility than anything related to Slaten’s timeline to return from a shoulder injury.
Boston needed a 40-man roster spot to activate left-hander Chris Murphy, who was on the 60-day IL after recovering from Tommy John surgery and had exhausted his 30-day rehab window in the minor leagues. The decision was made to move Slaten to the 60-day IL (so he no longer occupied a 40-man spot) because doing so doesn’t have much impact on when he’ll return. The 60-day stint began when Slaten was originally placed on the 15-day IL (May 29) so he’ll be eligible to return July 28. Considering he has been shut down from throwing for weeks, he’ll require a relatively long ramp-up period.
“He started playing catch yesterday,” explained manager Alex Cora. “It was slower than expected. He wasn’t feeling great — every test, he felt kind of weak with the shoulder. But yesterday he played catch. So it’s the start of his progress.”
“Timing-wise, it’s going to take that (long). So probably that’s the reason we have to make the move. Like I was telling (chief baseball officer Craig Breslow) yesterday, I said this guy’s very important for us. So we cannot rush him.”
When Slaten was placed on the IL in Atlanta earlier this month, he said he expected to be back after the minimum 15-day period. In the weeks since, he has been unable to regain strength and has dealt with a nerve-related neck issue that has complicated things. Now, he’s strong enough to resume playing catch. He’ll throw on flat ground before resuming bullpens, then face hitters (likely on a rehab assignment) before being activated.
Before getting hurt, Slaten was the primary setup man ahead of closer Aroldis Chapman and pitched very well despite a couple of blow-up outings. In total, he logged a 3.47 ERA in 23 ⅓ innings (24 games).
With Slaten out, the Red Sox hope newcomer Jordan Hicks, who could be activated from the IL in the coming days, can emerge as a hard-throwing late-game option.
“Knowing that Jordan at one point is going to be with us, you add that to Chapman, (Justin) Wilson, (Garrett) Whitlock, (Greg) Weissert, it’s a good unit back there and hopefully when Slaten’s back, everybody’s healthy and we can have a dominant bullpen,” Cora said.
