Red Sox place Joe Kelly, Koji Uehara on disabled list

The Red Sox have placed Joe Kelly and Koji Uehara on the 15-day disabled list to start the 2015 season.

The news is not exactly a surprise for either man. Uehara has been slowed by a hamstring injury for the last couple of weeks, and was not expected to be ready for Opening Day. The Red Sox are expected to turn to one-time Cardinals closer Edward Mujica to handle the ninth inning in the meantime.

With Kelly, while he has dealt with some bicep tightness over the course of the spring, this is largely just a bit of roster manipulation from the Red Sox. The Red Sox will not need a fifth starter until after Kelly is eligible to come off the disabled list, enabling them to carry eight relievers in the meantime. While the Red Sox can ill afford a loss in the rotation this early, there's no real reason to believe this constitutes more than a bit of gamesmanship from the Sox.

Both Uehara and Kelly will be eligible to come off the disabled list on April 11th. With the day off on April 7th allowing the Red Sox to turn to Clay Buchholz again for their game against the Yankees that day, we can expect Kelly back on the 12th. As for Koji, it actually comes down to health in that case. Hopefully he'll be back soon after, but this is the risk that comes of signing 40-year-olds (as of today, in fact).