- 2 months ago
If it were playoffs, would Rutschman play? Curtis: "He (Adley) would he be in the lineup?" Breslow: "Yes"
Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow joins! Just how serious is this Rutschman injury? Concern with trade
Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow joins! Just how serious is this Rutschman injury? Concern with trade
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00:00It is the chief baseball officer of the Boston Red Sox, Craig Breslow, who joins us right now.
00:06And it says here on my screen, are you working from home currently, Craig?
00:12No, I am not.
00:14I'm working from Fenway Park.
00:16All right.
00:16But I'm guessing that you might, I probably shouldn't guess, you might side with technology on this.
00:24I'm not sure exactly what the question is.
00:26I think asking me if I side with technology could be dangerous.
00:32Well, I'll tell you what I did want to ask you about.
00:35To borrow an NBA term, it seems like we are seeing some load management going on.
00:43Is that kind of what strategy-wise, what you guys are doing right now?
00:50I guess the answer would be maybe in that where we are is wanting to make sure that guys who
00:58have either some lingering injuries, discomfort, soreness, or are approaching workloads that maybe they haven't before,
01:07we're trying to be as smart as possible about making sure that we're completely healthy, recovered, fresh for a stretch
01:13run.
01:13I don't think, though, that we're in a position to just take healthy guys and try to manipulate how much
01:22work they're taking on.
01:24If we think about Sonny and having him skip a start and then slot back into rotation this weekend, this
01:32was not a reaction to something that's happened recently.
01:35Obviously, this is more an accumulation of the work that he's had over the last month and a half or
01:41so and him wanting to stay on regular rest the last, I think, four or five turns through and then
01:47just saying, hey, I benefit from a few days.
01:49So we call that load management.
01:51We call that being smart.
01:52I'll leave that up to you guys.
01:54When it comes to Sonny, there's not a concern about a pain thing or an injury thing.
01:59It's really – it's just the rest, right?
02:03Yes, exactly.
02:04So, you know, he knew that we were trying to find times to give Jake and Peyton an extra day
02:11where we could when Ranger was coming off the IL and still working his overall volume up.
02:17And he said, hey, I can go, you know, on a regular five-day.
02:21My body feels really good.
02:22There will be some point where I'll probably come to you and say, hey, give me a couple extra days
02:25just to get back in sync.
02:27And we knew that that was likely to happen.
02:29And then kind of another example would be Wilson, who was very clearly playing through some hamstring soreness.
02:37And we were at this place where he could go two or three days in a row, but then might
02:40need a day.
02:41Or if he really needed to push it, not feeling totally confident like it was there.
02:45And after we got through the Yankee series saying, hey, this is probably the right time to get on the
02:50other side of it.
02:51So we're trying to manage all those things.
02:53Craig, when you look at guys like Garrett Crochet and Curtis Mead, there's been, you know, reports of them working
02:59their way back.
03:01Where are you when it comes to being able to utilize those guys in the postseason?
03:06Is that something?
03:07I know it's hard to put a number, but are you feeling like maybe 60, 70 percent there's a chance
03:11we'll be able to utilize those guys or even a higher number than that?
03:16It's so hard to put a percentage on it or a probability on it.
03:20I think instead we're trying to use we're trying to map out some benchmarks that would that would be evidence
03:28of like meaningful progress for Garrett.
03:30Obviously, the first one was throwing and then we'll be getting off the mound and then facing hitters with Curtis.
03:36It was we needed to get the cast off and then need to get strength and range of motion back.
03:39And then you're going to need to swing, you know, so I know each of those guys is doing everything
03:45that he can to get back, you know, and they're making progress every day.
03:50But to say exactly where they'll be four weeks from now, I think just just might be kind of foolish
03:56at this moment.
03:57I feel like our relationship has grown in in the right direction.
04:01But if you if you ever again send Mickey Gasper anywhere else other than Fenway Park, you and I are
04:10going to have a real problem.
04:11Right.
04:12He has been just incredible to the point that when he gets up there and he hits a single, you
04:18somehow feel like he's let you down.
04:19Right.
04:21It's just it's incredible.
04:22You know, it's just really fun to to watch and so happy for this guy who, you know, has been
04:31through a lot.
04:31He's bounced around.
04:32He's finally getting some run to play every day.
04:35And we're seeing just an incredible, incredible potential.
04:39He can really, really hit.
04:40I think that's become very clear.
04:42Craig, when it comes to Adley Rushman being out with the right elbow, this is something that now the team
04:48has said that they might have to manage for the remainder of the season.
04:51And when you could take into consideration that he was your main acquisition at the trade deadline and and what
04:57you've had to deal with since then, how serious is it?
04:59And what would you what would you rate that trade now?
05:04Sure.
05:05I don't think with a trade like this where Adley is, you know, is still here next season when, you
05:15know, some of the players that we gave up have very, very long tails of control.
05:18I don't think it can be graded a month after the trade.
05:22You know, we we knew what we were getting with Adley.
05:27You know, we obviously were able to go through the medical and got comfortable with it.
05:31This is, you know, a situation where he took a swing and felt like he hyperextended the right elbow.
05:36And there's some residual irritation and bruising that we can manage in that he can play.
05:44And we're just trying to kind of straddle the line of, you know, when is it best to give him
05:50some rest and maybe maybe be able to get out to the on the other side of this versus having
05:55him in the lineup is going to help us.
05:57So I don't think managing this is necessarily like the scary term or scary idea that it could sound.
06:04I think it's more saying he can play with this, but there might be some time where he needs a
06:08day or he doesn't bounce back quite as well.
06:11And conversely, there might be a situation where we're, you know, maybe over the last few days, we've been able
06:15to give him enough rest to where it's it's gotten to the point that he can go out there and
06:19he can play every day.
06:21But I think we know what we're dealing with and it doesn't appear as though there's anything really scary going
06:26on here.
06:26So if this were the playoffs tomorrow, he could play, he'd be in the lineup.
06:31Yes.
06:33Was there a concern? I know you said you got comfortable with the medicals. We went over them yesterday in
06:38detail.
06:38The elbow has been an issue dating back. There was a couple issues a couple of years ago with the
06:42right elbow.
06:43He was injured when he arrived. You have no concern about his ability to be a healthy player for your
06:48team going forward?
06:50Correct. He was on the I.O. when we got him with a wrist injury. That is not what's happening
06:58here.
06:58This is a flare up as a result of a swing where his right arm kind of got into that
07:05end range and the result was some irritation and some bruising.
07:11But this is a different injury than what he was on the I.O. with when he got here.
07:15And like I said, yes, if this were a playoff game and we are very likely to see him in
07:21the lineup today, but feel confident in his ability to help us down the stretch here.
07:25Any any concern that you overpaid for him?
07:29No, I think, again, like we'll be able to evaluate the trade in its totality probably five or six years
07:37from now.
07:39But this was the catching spot was an area where we felt like we needed to upgrade.
07:46The team had put us in a position to where being aggressive and trying to add at the deadline made
07:52a lot of sense.
07:53And so we went out and we did it.
07:55Roman Anthony with a home run last night, yesterday afternoon, but whatever we there was some question about when the
08:04decision, how you made the decision when it came to he and Trevor's story on playing in the Yankee series.
08:12What what went into that for you guys?
08:15Sure.
08:15Just the combination of making sure that each of those guys and we can lump them together because they they
08:22both were activated at the same time.
08:24But we approached them individually because they were dealing with different injuries, play different positions, et cetera.
08:31But wanted to make sure that we were meeting the two criteria, both being completely healthy so that they weren't
08:37worrying about those those injuries when they were coming back and to play with confidence.
08:41And then from a baseball standpoint, feeling like they were ready to come out and perform, just given the success
08:49that the team had had over the last couple of months and wanting to make sure that those guys were
08:52ready to contribute.
08:53Really, that levels that we've seen in the past.
08:55Craig, when you look at Trevor's story and both Roman Anthony, I know the biggest thing when when guys return
09:00from injuries is how they feel after they've played a few games physically.
09:06How have these guys have been feeling physically after, you know, getting some games underneath their belt?
09:13Sure.
09:13They they both have said that they feel good.
09:16And and the demands on each has been a little bit different with Roman de-aging, playing playing right one
09:22of the games to give the chance to get Willie off his feet.
09:25But I think Roman in a position to where he can be in the lineup every single day.
09:32Trevor, probably a little bit different just because I think the demands on his body at playing the middle of
09:36the of the field are a little bit different.
09:38So we're likely going to find our spots to give him days.
09:42And it becomes a lot easier to do that when you know that you've got quite a bit of depth
09:47that had stepped in and will continue to step in and make those days pretty seamless.
09:52You bring up giving them days.
09:53I was just going to ask, is is it sustainable for how good they're feeling with coming off these injuries?
10:00Um, you know, I'd like to think so, just because we were, you know, we were in communication with each
10:07of the players, the medical staff, we their rehab, you know, was pretty deliberate in terms of the buildup.
10:13But I don't know that there's any way to recreate a major league environment, you know, including the travel, the
10:22pressure, just the speed of the game.
10:24So we'll make sure that we talk to those guys.
10:27And like I said, it is likely that we'll give them a day to make sure that they stay sharp.
10:31And that's a lot easier to do when you've got pieces on the bench that, you know, can step right
10:36in.
10:37Craig, we've talked a lot about it.
10:38And I think, you know, our own Rob Bradford, who had a big day at Fenway, called Sunday prior to
10:43the game, the biggest August game in the history of the Red Sox.
10:46And then in the fifth inning of that game, you had Sedan Raffaella appear to catch a ball that was
10:52called not a catch, was reviewed, and it was upheld as not a catch.
10:55What do you think happened?
10:56Do you think Sedan Raffaella caught that ball in the fifth inning?
11:00So I do.
11:02And a lot of that comes from talking to Sedan and feeling quite confident that if there's somebody in baseball
11:09who can tell you whether or not they caught a ball, it's Sedan Raffaella.
11:13And I think based on everything that we've seen, he probably earned the benefit of the doubt.
11:19I also understand why once the play went to review and there was that split-second blind spot of not
11:25being able to see where the ball was behind the glove, that maybe the call couldn't be overturned.
11:32But my strong suspicion is that if it were ruled a catch on the field, it would have stood.
11:37And that's a really frustrating thing there.
11:40Craig, last one for me.
11:41When you start to look at a team like the Yankees that you face so many times throughout the regular
11:47season, and then you potentially could see them in the postseason, it's about confidence and familiarity.
11:53Do you feel like if you, as a team, had to go into New York, do you feel confident in
11:58this baseball team that you guys could win that series?
12:03I do.
12:03And that's not to say that we shouldn't understand the situation and recognize the caliber of team that New York
12:14is.
12:15I also think you talked about familiarity, and I do think that that's really important, that we've seen their lineup
12:20a number of times.
12:20We've seen the arms that they're going to throw at us a number of times.
12:23Sometimes it's always tough to go into Yankee Stadium and win a series, but we're confident in the group that
12:31we have.
12:32And I think the more times that we see them, the better our chances become.
12:35But there's a lot of baseball to play between now and then, and we've got to make sure that we're
12:38focused on the series that we have in Baltimore starting tonight.
12:42All right.
12:42Craig Breslow, thanks for taking the time.
12:44We will talk to you again in a couple weeks.
12:49Sounds great.
12:50All right.
12:50That is Craig Breslow.
12:51I say.