Eduardo Rodriguez needs 3-4 weeks of rest for his injured knee

The Red Sox got some news about their injured starter on Monday, and it’s....okay, I suppose. Eduardo Rodriguez was placed on the 10-day disabled list on Friday with a knee injury. After some initial tests after the injury came to light, the young lefty went to see Dr. James Andrews for a second opinion. Andrews suggested that Rodriguez take 3-4 weeks to rest his knee before returning back to baseball action.

You should read all of Drellich’s report in the linked tweet above, but within it is mentioned that surgery is also still an option, whether it be this year or in the future.

On the one hand, it’s good news that surgery isn’t needed right at this moment and his season is not over. Hopefully, in a month’s time he’ll be making a rehab start and everything will be good.

However, the Red Sox are now going to be without one of their top starters for about a month, and that’s obviously a big blow. Even with Price back in the rotation and looking healthy, Boston will need a spot starter for now and if things get worse for Rodriguez it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them look into the trade market for a longer-term replacement. That surgery word also doesn’t make anyone feel good about things, although at the very least one would hope he’ll be able to stave off any sort of procedure until the winter.

In the meantime, it appears as though Brian Johnson has a chance at a longer-term stay in the majors than it originally seemed. He certainly deserved another start after his complete game shutout in Boston in his last spot start, but outside factors didn’t allow that to happen. In his last start at Triple-A, Johnson left early with what looked like a bad leg injury. The news since then has gotten better, though.

It’s not a great day off for the Red Sox, but it could have been worse. There’s still a long way to go in Rodriguez’ recovery and obviously things could go awry, but for now there’s reason to believe he’ll be back in another month. On top of that, the hope is that Johnson will be able to take his spot immediately, and based on his last outing there’s a chance he could fill in admirably. For now, there’s nothing to do but look at it as optimistically as possible.