Chris Martin was retroactively placed on the 15-day injured list on July 4 and the Red Sox were hopeful that he could be activated this coming Friday on his first day of eligibility. However, Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters (including Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe) that Martin is temporarily shut down since the reliever “didn’t feel great” after a game of catch on Friday.
Cora said that Martin isn’t scheduled to undergo an MRI and that overall, he is “not concerned” over the situation. Cora did add that “it’s going to take longer than we expected.” Martin has been sidelined with right elbow inflammation and rather than continue his throwing progression, he’ll instead take the All-Star break off before heading to Boston while the Red Sox start the second half with a western road trip.
Martin’s numbers aren’t quite as impressive as they were during his first season with the Red Sox, but he has still been quite solid with a 3.42 ERA over 26 1/3 innings, as well as an above-average 27.9% strikeout rate and a 1.9BB% that ranks among baseball’s best walk rates. Martin had a minimal 15-day IL stint earlier this season due to anxiety, in addition to this current elbow issue.
With Martin set to miss more time beyond the minimum, the Sox are now down two relievers given Friday’s placement (retroactive to July 9) of right-hander Justin Slaten on the 15-day IL, also with inflammation in his throwing elbow. Speaking with MLB.com and other media about Slaten, Cora said the reliever has “been grinding through it probably the last 15 days."
The manager also noted that "it’s his first time pitching this much, and obviously we’ve got to be careful with him.” For now, the Red Sox believe this could also be just a 15-day break for Slaten, though as we saw with Martin, it depends on how Slaten’s elbow responds during his down time.
Slaten has made an excellent accounting of himself in his first MLB season, with a 3.38 ERA and a set of outstanding Statcast metrics over his first 42 2/3 innings as a big leaguer. A third-round pick for the Rangers in the 2019 draft, Slaten was selected away from Texas by the Mets during last December’s Rule 5 draft, but the Mets then dealt Slaten to the Red Sox and thus Boston has to keep Slaten on its active roster or injured list for the entire season or else offer him back to the Rangers.
Based on the early results, it looks like the Red Sox may have found a hidden gem with the 26-year-old righty. Slaten averages 96.3mph on his fastball, though his heater and his sweeper are secondary to an excellent cutter that Slaten has thrown 39.2% of the time this season. Batters simply haven’t yet figured him out, giving the Sox another solid arm within what has been an unspectacular-but-generally-effective bullpen. Slaten is also another example of how Boston’s revamped pitching development department and new pitching coach Andrew Bailey have turned around a staff that struggled in 2023.
This group could’ve potentially been even stronger if Seth Lugo had been signed in the offseason, as the Sox were among the teams who pushed to sign the free-agent righty. Lugo signed a three-year, $45M deal with the Royals and MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo writes that the Sox weren’t willing to go to three years for the veteran hurler or match a $15M average annual value.
Lugo told Cotillo that beyond the contract, the Royals stood out due to their relative proximity to Lugo’s home in Louisiana. Still, Lugo said the Red Sox were "one of the last ones talking to me before we made the decision." It helped that he had a past connection to Cora via Team Puerto Rico during the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
Ironically, the Red Sox dealt Lugo one of his worst outings of the season Saturday, as Lugo allowed five runs on 10 hits and a walk over five innings in Kansas City’s 5-0 loss to Boston. Even with that rough performance now on his ledger, Lugo still has a 2.48 ERA over 20 starts and 127 innings this season, earning the righty his first All-Star nod in his ninth MLB season.
