Kevin Plawecki reportedly to be placed on injured list today

As if their loss on Sunday, which led to a loss in the series against the Royals, wasn’t bad enough, the Red Sox also suffered a couple of injuries during that game. One of them came behind the plate, when Kevin Plawecki had to run up the first base line a bit to get a throw from Kiké Hernández that was off the mark. It looked like he tweaked a hamstring in the process, and after staying in for the rest of that inning he was pinch hit for in the following frame. Now, it looks like he’ll miss some more time, as Chris Cotillo is reporting the backup catcher is likely to hit the injured list prior to Tuesday night’s game in Tampa.

It’s been a tough go for Plawecki this season after coming through with a solid campaign in 2020 in the same role. This season, the veteran backstop is hitting .254/.319/.349 while his defense is taking a bit of a hit as well. He also hasn’t gotten a chance to play a ton this year, accruing only 70 plate appearances to this point in the schedule. As of this writing, there is no indication as to how serious this injury is, but it didn’t appear to be anything too long-term when it happened.

What will be really interesting to see will be who does end up coming up to take that spot on the roster. As Cotillo notes, Wong and Hermann are the two most likely options. On paper, Wong would appear to be the most logical selection. He is on the 40-man while Hermann is not, and he is also one of the better prospects in the system, providing upside Hermann cannot boast.

However, it’s not quite that simple as there is a good argument Hermann is the better and safer player right now. Wong has not played much this year due to a hamstring injury, appearing in only 16 games. He’s struggled to get much going in that time as well, hitting .148/.188/.246. Hermann, meanwhile, is hitting .239/.366/.418. He also has major-league experience, putting up a .626 OPS across parts of seven seasons in the bigs.

Just in terms of the player and what they can do right now, I would think Hermann is the better option. He provides likely a higher baseline of production for this season, and it also gives Wong a chance to stay in Triple-A to get more at bats. This is his first season at the level, and as mentioned above he just hasn’t gotten much time. It’s not too difficult to make 40-man room, either, as Danny Santana, Matt Andriese and Yacksel Ríos are all viable DFA candidates, with Franchy Cordero, Michael Chavis, Jarren Duran, or any number of Worcester relievers being reasonable candidates to join the major-league roster.

Update (1:40 PM ET)

It will indeed be Wong coming up for the Red Sox, again per Cotillo.