Boston Red Sox star third baseman Alex Bregman has been the bright spot of a frustrating offense this season but now the team might be without him. In Game 1 of Friday's doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles, Bregman laced a shot to left field against the Green Monster but was held to a single. After pulling up and getting back to first, he immediately waved to the dugout and showed pain in his left leg in the calf area.
Bregman immediately left the game after the injury. No one on the NESN broadcast knew what was happening, the sentiment that was also true on social media. You can see for yourself as well as it's hard to say what the injury was. The third baseman's run looked normal and there wasn't any ankle turn or really anything that would indicate a problem. Yet, there was.
What's clear, though, is that Red Sox fans will wait with bated breath for an update. Losing Bregman is quite truthfully the last thing this team can afford.
Update: The NESN broadcast reported on Friday in the top of the seventh inning that Bregman left the game with what the Red Sox are calling "right quad tightness". While that's still vague and doesn't include any kind of concrete timeline, it does seem like his exit from Game 1 of the doubleheader might be more cautionary than a sign of something more serious for the Boston third baseman.
Alex Bregman's mysterious injury forces exit, makes problems worse
Bregman and Rafael Devers, aside from the latter's first week of the season, have been the only consistent forces in the Red Sox offense this season. That's been exacerbated without Triston Casas, who suffered a season-ending knee injury earlier this year. Even with the first baseman's struggles, there were signs he was about to provide a spark and break out of that slump.
Boston still hasn't found a viable solution to replacing Casas at first base and that's going to be even more impossible if they have to replace Bregman. Sure, they have guys that they can throw in there, but with the team also (at least hopefully) considering alternatives to a dismal Trevor Story right now and needing to get out of the mire of mediocrity to start the season, that's going to be difficult without their third baseman who'd been playing like an MVP candidate in an alternate reality where Aaron Judge isn't playing.
That's why the mysterious nature of the injury is so unsettling. Optimism would lead fans to say or hope that it's something as minor as a calf strain. But if it falls closer to worst-case scenario with Bregman, then we're talking about the Red Sox being exceptionally short-handed. Should that be the case, the organization has only one justifiable option.
If Alex Bregman's injury is serious, it's time to call up Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony
If we get some clarity on Bregman's injury in the coming hours and days only to find out it's a serious one that will put him on the shelf for a sustained period of time, that means it's time for the Red Sox to pull the lever on their top two prospects, Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony.
Mayer is the obvious call-up, someone who has played third base in his career and is already being discussed as a call-up to replace Story at shortstop. While it doesn't solve the Story issue, it would give the infield a shot in the arm that they need right now.
Of course, Bregman's injury doesn't pave the way for Anthony, the top prospect in all of baseball, to come up to Boston. However, it's situationally the move that the Red Sox would need at that point. Anthony has sported an OPS over .900 all season in Triple-A and looks more than ready to make an immediate impact in the big leagues. Without Bregman, that's the type of spark that Boston will absolutely need.
We will continue to keep you updated on Bregman's status and what happened with the injury to force him out of the game, but the Red Sox will need to act quickly based on what they find out in order to save a season that could quickly be lost without their star offseason acquisition.