Red Sox Injury News: Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz, Stephen Drew

Whoever says "no news is good news" has not had to deal with interminable silence that can surround injuries in sports. There's nothing worse than day after day passing without any indications of progress for a star's day-to-day injury, or that nagging pain that seems to be pushing back their expected return day after day.

So, any news today on the likes of Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz, and Stephen Drew would, on some level, be welcome. That we've news on all three, and that news is largely positive, makes this one of the best rounds of injury notes in a long time.

[UPDATE]: Apparently some signals got crossed with just about every beat writer. Jacoby Ellsbury did not have an MRI on his ankle. Shane Victorino had one on his wrist. The results were all clear, as we'd heard of Ellsbury's fictional scan.

For those hoping for news on Ellsbury, word is that the Sox expect him to play in Thursday's game, much like they expected him to play in today's. With that in mind, you might want to skip the next couple of paragraphs.

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Let's start with Jacoby Ellsbury. He's out of the lineup today three days after rolling his ankle against the Philadelphia Phillies. This despite the Sox saying earlier in the week that they expected him to be ready against the Marlins. That's not good news, but don't get too worried just yet. Per Evan Drellich, the center fielder underwent an MRI that came back clean, and he's only being held out of today's game as a precaution.

Of course, Jacoby Ellsbury and "clean" MRIs have something of a history. Hopefully it's harder to hide a messed up ankle than it is to hide a cracked rib.

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Progress for David Ortiz has been painfully slow, so far this year, and after a big step back a couple weeks back, any step forward is going to look minor in comparison. So keep that in mind when reading the following Pete Abraham tweet:

David Ortiz will hit on the field today and do some agility work. "Solid progress" Farrell says.

It's not exactly fantastic news, but it means that Ortiz is moving in the right direction, at the very least. He's not going to be ready for opening day--that ship has long since sailed--but so long as he keeps taking these steps forward, then he'll be back in the lineup before too long.

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Finally, there's Stephen Drew the concussed. He is, it seems, still at least a little bit concussed--or, rather, still feeling the effects of the concussion a little bit. Per Pete Abraham, again, Drew is almost all the way back, with the only hurdle left to clear actually playing in a game. While Drew will almost certainly join Ortiz on the disabled list to start the season, it's looking like the wait for him should be the minimum 15 days (some of which will be postdated to spring training).

In the meantime, the Sox will have Jose Iglesias to man the position. The young shortstop has shown a surprising amount of pop thus far in spring, but spring is spring, and Iglesias will likely be sent back down to Triple-A as soon as Drew returns to make sure he gets as many at bats as possible.