Chris Martin was retroactively positioned on the 15-day injured checklist on July 4, and the Purple Sox have been hopeful that he may very well be activated this coming Friday on his first day of eligibility. Nevertheless, Sox supervisor Alex Cora instructed reporters (together with Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe) that Martin is quickly shut down for the reason that reliever “didn’t really feel nice” after a sport of catch on Friday.
Cora stated that Martin isn’t scheduled to endure an MRI, and total he’s “not involved” over the state of affairs, “however it’s going to take longer than we anticipated.” Martin has been sidelined with proper elbow irritation, and somewhat than proceed his throwing development, he’ll as an alternative take the All-Star break off earlier than heading to Boston whereas the Purple Sox begin the second half with a western street journey.
Martin’s numbers aren’t fairly as spectacular as they have been throughout his first season with the Purple Sox, however he has nonetheless been fairly stable with a 3.42 ERA over 26 1/3 innings, in addition to an above-average 27.9% strikeout fee and a 1.9BB% that ranks amongst baseball’s finest stroll charges. Martin had a minimal 15-day IL stint earlier this season as a consequence of nervousness, along with this present elbow problem.
With Martin set to overlook extra time past Friday, the Sox are actually down two relievers with yesterday’s placement (retroactive to July 9) of right-hander Justin Slaten on the 15-day IL, additionally with irritation in his throwing elbow. Talking with MLB.com and different media about Slaten, Cora stated the reliever has “been grinding via it most likely the final 15 days….It’s his first time pitching this a lot, and clearly we’ve obtained to watch out with him.” For now, the Purple Sox believes this is also only a 15-day break for Slaten, although as we simply noticed with Martin, it will depend on how Slaten’s elbow responds throughout his down time.
Slaten has made a wonderful accounting of himself in his first MLB season, with a 3.38 ERA and a set of excellent Statcast metrics over his first 42 2/3 innings as an enormous leaguer. A 3rd-round choose for the Rangers within the 2019 draft, Slaten was chosen away from Texas by the Mets throughout final December’s Rule 5 draft, however the Mets then dealt Slaten to the Purple Sox, and thus Boston has to maintain Slaten on its energetic roster or injured checklist for the whole season or else supply him again to the Rangers.
Based mostly on the early outcomes, it seems to be just like the Purple Sox might have discovered a hidden gem with the 26-year-old righty. Slaten averages 96.3mph on his fastball, although his heater and his sweeper are secondary to a wonderful cutter that Slaten has thrown 39.2% of the time this season. Batters merely haven’t but figured him out, giving the Sox one other stable arm inside what has been an unspectacular however usually efficient bullpen. Slaten can also be one other instance of how Boston’s revamped pitching growth division and new pitching coach Andrew Bailey have circled a employees that struggled in 2023.
This group may’ve probably been even stronger if Seth Lugo had been signed within the offseason, because the Sox have been among the many groups who pushed to signal the free agent righty. Lugo signed a three-year, $45MM take care of the Royals, and MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo writes that the Sox weren’t prepared to go to a few years for the veteran hurler, or match a $15MM common annual worth.
Lugo instructed Cotillo that past the contract, the Royals stood out as a consequence of their relative proximity to Lugo’s house in Louisiana. Nonetheless, Lugo stated the Purple Sox “have been one of many final ones speaking to me earlier than we made the choice,” and it helped that he had a previous connection to Cora through Group Puerto Rico through the 2017 World Baseball Basic.
Satirically, the Purple Sox dealt Lugo one in every of his worst outings of the season right now, as Lugo allowed 5 runs on 10 hits and a stroll over 5 innings in Kansas Metropolis’s 5-0 loss to Boston. Even with that tough efficiency now on his ledger, Lugo nonetheless has a 2.48 ERA over 20 begins and 127 innings this season, incomes the righty his first All-Star nod in his ninth MLB season.
