Sox in closer bind as they move Hanrahan to 60-day DL
After a poor performance in Monday night’s 11-inning 6-5 win, Red Sox closer Joel Hanrahan has been placed on the team’s 60-day disabled list. The move came even before he met with doctor famed orthopedist Dr. James Andrews, leading fans to believe this is no small injury bug. Hanrahan won’t be able to pitch again until July, which is quite some time.
His injury is listed as a strained right forearm, but ESPN’s Gordon Edes reported Hanrahan said he was worried the injury was worse than he originally suspected. An MRI Tuesday showed no significant structural damage to his muscles, but there’s significant bruising around his elbow, and the worst case scenario here would be Tommy John surgery.
“Doesn’t look good,” Hanrahan told ESPN. “Leave it up to the experts, see what they say, let them put their heads together and go from there.”
He’s set to meet with Dr. Andrews on Friday, and we’ll know more about the nature of his injury after that appointment.
Hanrahan’s absence doesn’t leave the Sox in a good spot. Andrew Bailey is already on the 15-day DL with an inflamed bicep, and he’s the only other Red Sox reliever the team used as a closer aside from Hanhrahan. Manager John Farrell said he’ll go with Junichi Tazawa as the closer from here on out. Farrell said on MLB Network Radio he’d like to keep Koji Uehara in the eighth-inning role.
