Tyler Thornburg to be officially activated on Wednesday

The Red Sox bullpen is finally getting another potential elite arm ahead of Wednesday’s series finale in Washington. We talked about Tyler Thornburg earlier in the week when it was hinted that he’d be activated off the disabled list at some point either in Washington or Kansas City. Well, after Tuesday’s win over the Nationals, Alex Cora announced to the media that the right-handed pitcher was set to be activated prior to Wednesday’s game. William Cuevas will be demoted to make room on the active roster.

Really, there isn’t a whole lot more to say here. As I said in the linked post above, Thornburg is far from a guarantee to be his old self on the mound as he returns from TOS surgery. If anything, it’s a longshot given the track record of that injury. Still, he represents the best chance at a true elite setup man behind Craig Kimbrel — though just based on numbers Matt Barnes isn’t that far behind. More than anything, Thornburg has been a mystery that many of us have been dying to solve since he was traded to Boston prior to the 2017 season. It’ll be a relief to finally see him back on the mound.

As for Cuevas, he pitched decently well on Tuesday and now gets to stay on the 40-man roster for at least a little while. That’s about as much as one can ask from someone like him.