Red Sox place Brock Holt and Brian Johnson on the injured list

The hits keep on coming for your 2019 Red Sox. Fresh off the embarrassingly disastrous series opener in Arizona on Friday, Boston has made a couple of roster moves. They will have two new players on the roster for Saturday’s game. The team announced Saturday morning that Brock Holt was placed on the 10-day injured list with a scratched cornea and Brian Johnson was placed on the 10-day injured list with left elbow inflammation. Taking their spot on the active roster will be Tzu-Wei Lin and Marcus Walden.

We’ll start with Johnson, because this one may have been more expected. Not that there was any indication that anything was wrong physically with the southpaw, but he imploded in relief on Friday. The assumption before that appearance was that he’d get the start on Sunday. With him coming on in relief, that was obviously off the table. Now, Hector Velázquez is most likely to start and the team could use a fresh arm in case he can’t make it more than a few innings. Walden can fill that role. In fact, there’s a possibility the latter gets the start instead. This stay on the IL could also give the team a chance to tweak some things to get Johnson back on track. Whatever the case, as of now there’s no indication this is something to be worried about long-term.

As for Holt, this one came out of nowhere. We haven’t heard any cause for his injury, but a scratched cornea is a strange one. As with Johnson, there’s no reason to believe the super utility man will be out for a long time, but the team needs some depth in his stead. Lin can fill the same role as Holt. With this move coming, we can expect a heavy dose of Eduardo Núñez starting at second base until Dustin Pedroia comes back. Lin has the talent to earn himself starts, he just may not have enough time in this stint.