It hasn't exactly resembled the days of rolling out Dustin Pedroia almost each and every day. The Red Sox' second base position is now officially a group effort.
Heading into Saturday Christian Arroyo has played 21 games at the position, with Marwin Gonzalez totaling 14 and Enrique Hernandez sitting at six. Now Michael Chavis is in the mix, with both Arroyo and Hernandez on the injured list.
It's a dynamic that doesn't figure to be changing any time soon.
Arroyo's progress from his injured hand hasn't been along the lines of the path the Red Sox had hoped, with the second baseman still having some difficulty swinging a bat.
"It didn't go great so he's not going to take batting practice today," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora regarding Arroyo's injury. "He's still feeling it toward the end and you can tell it's kind of like he's babying it, whatever you want to call it, his swing through impact. I don't think he will be ready for a rehab game yet. I don't think it's going to take that long, either. I do believe probably toward the end of the week he'll do that. But as of now we have to reassess that plan and go from there. I don't think he's going to take batting practice today outside. Probably try the same thing. Get treatment and go back to tee work and start building again."
The good news is that Hernandez, who has primarily played centerfield, is likely to join the team when it hits the road next week. He served as Worcester's designated hitter Saturday, while planning to play in the field Sunday.
Offensively, the Red Sox are middle of the pack at the second base spot, totaling a combined OPS of .698 and .242 batting average.
Defensively, the collection of second basemen have been solid, turning the third-most double plays, while boasting the seventh-best fielding percentage and No. 13 zone rating.
It is part of an overall defense that Cora has been happy with to this point.
"We work hard. We’re still working hard," the manager said. "Our information department, they send the information out, I’m locked in on that and we’ve been making adjustments throughout the season. We’re very pleased, overall in the outfield it’s been solid. I know guys like to give JD, they get on him because supposedly he’s not a good outfielder but right now he’s plus-one defensively in left field in defensive runs saved so he’s not that bad. He’s actually better than some of the good ones. Renfroe what he’s done so far has been amazing, obviously Alex and Enrique are solid, Xander for some reason the metrics never help him out and he hasn’t been outstanding but he’s solid i always say whatever he touches turns into outs and that’s good. Early in the season his arm was a little bit iffy but now he’s at full strength and you can see him making plays, three second basemen have been amazing. Marwin, Christian and Kiké. Bobby has been better lately and Marwin at first has been plus. Raffy he’s been solid. You look at the numbers and compare him to some of the good ones and we’re very happy. Christian he’s leading the catchers in defensive runs saved and second in pitch framing. So overall we’re very pleased with the way they’re playing defense and we can get better. We’re just a good baseball team."
