BOSTON -- The Red Sox, rolling as they are, have a chance to deepen their roster if two currently injured players can impact the club down the stretch.
Key setup man Justin Slaten, shut down at the end of May with a right shoulder injury that turned into a complicated nerve issue, is making strong progress and could be back in the bullpen before the month is out.
Things aren’t as clear for infielder Marcelo Mayer, who had an injection for his ailing right wrist three days ago in hopes the discomfort will wane enough that he can get back in action at some point this season.
“I still need to go through all the strengthening stuff, get range of motion back and kind of work from there,” Mayer said. “I got it like three days ago, so it’s still a little sore from the injection site. We have a great team and all I want to do is play, so I went with the injection route and hopefully I’m good enough to play -- and if not, I’ll know that I gave it 100 percent trying to get back on the field.”
As for Slaten, he took a tangible step forward prior to Tuesday’s game against the Royals, throwing his first full-fledged mound session since the injury. A couple of days ago, Slaten had more of a touch-and-feel session.
“I felt really good,” Slaten said. "I’m super excited about the way that I bounced back after the other day’s just kind of light mound session. I felt really good today. So super excited.”
What’s next?
“I'll probably go one or two more times off the mound, just like [today],” Slaten said. “Just continue building the volume, mixing in breaking balls next time. And then hitters after that.”
So what exactly happened to Slaten after thinking he would miss just a couple of weeks due to shoulder inflammation?
“It’s called a transverse process,” Slaten said. “It’s a little bony thing that comes out of your cervical spine. And it happened for me. I was just kind of like born with one that was abnormally, like large and misshaped. I kind of started getting tight. And guess the thought talking to the doctors and stuff, that essentially that bone was kind of like a very high traffic area of nerves, blood vessels and stuff like that.
“Essentially that bone in my neck was kind of pushing on nerves, pushing on blood vessels, causing a lot of shoulder soreness, specifically, like in the trap scat in front of the shoulder area, because there wasn't a lot of blood flow going through. And there were nights I was waking up three or four times a night, my entire arm was numb and it felt like 10 to 14 days, it felt like I was having muscle spasm in my shoulder. So that's kind of why we initially called it shoulder soreness.
“And then after not really being able to get it to calm down for a while, we got imaging, thinking that it could have potentially been like a fractured bone in my collarbone, and then that's when we found out about the thing in my neck that was kind of like the root of the problem. So, yeah, super weird kind of deal, but glad that we got it figured out. I'm glad that we got it to calm down, and I'm feeling good now.”
Slaten believes he’s closer to returning than “people realize.”
In Mayer’s case, he was honest but hopeful about his situation.
The part of the wrist he injured is the TFCC (Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex) portion of the wrist, which keeps the joint stabilized. Mayer previously dealt with this injury in his first full pro season of 2022.
If the strengthening and rehab don’t do the trick, surgery could be a possibility for Mayer.
“They would just go in there and do microscopic surgery if that was needed. I think the rehab would be, like, two to three months,” Mayer said.
Is that something that could happen in the offseason even if he does play again this year?
“I'm not really sure,” Mayer said. “I mean that's something to be said when that happens. Right now my focus is doing whatever I can to try to get back on the field.”