Garrett Whitlock will not be ready for Opening Day, may miss one or two turns in rotation
The Red Sox provided a clearer timetable for Garrett Whitlock as Spring Training begins to wind down.
He is expected to continue his rehab and miss potentially one or two starts to begin the season. There is a chance that he could pitch on April 4, against the Pirates from Fenway Park.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters, including The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier that Whitlock will require at least one minor league rehab start.
“We’re not going to cut corners on this,” said Cora to the Globe. “There’s no rush here. We’ve just got to be patient. Last year, I think we rushed into a few situations and it put us in a bad spot. We learned from it and we’re not going to make the same mistakes.”
Whitlock underwent arthroscopic surgery on his hip on Sept. 26 and entered camp slightly behind the rest of the starters.
He suffered no setbacks in his rehab and made his first spring appearance Wednesday against the Rays. He has now seen action in two spring games, tossing five scoreless innings while striking out six batters while allowing two unearned runs.
Whitlock is expected to throw a four-inning start against the minor leaguers on Saturday. The plan from there is to have the right-hander to throw two five-inning outings, which could be one of his minor league rehab appearances.
“I feel ready. My arm feels great. My body feels great,” said Whitlock. “[Earlier in camp] I worried too much about when I was going to pitch and everything. I’m just going to pitch when they tell me to pitch, just kind of put my head down and trust the process and keep working.’”
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